


Of Tempests and Dragons

by Fullmetal_Bitch



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Adventure, And Phil, Friendship, Gen, I tried my best, Learning To Trust People, No Slash, Poor Jack, The other guardians are only in a couple of chapters but mentioned throughout the story, Time Travel, i dont get real descriptive this time about that stuff, making new friends, mild blood and gore in later chapters, not sure what to tag tbh, poor baby tooth, poor everyone really, same for Pitch Black and his Night-Mares, thank you RealityXIllusion for help with the title!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:40:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 75,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28949070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fullmetal_Bitch/pseuds/Fullmetal_Bitch
Summary: After being ambushed by Pitch Black and his ally, Jack finds himself thrown back in time to the era of Vikings and dragons! Tasked with a job he doesn't have any details for, Jack must navigate the world of dragons and Berk with Baby Tooth as his only definite ally. Will Jack manage to survive the dragons and Vikings long enough to complete his task and go back to his own time?Will follow my normal posting schedule of every Sunday, Queensland, Australia time!
Relationships: Astrid & Fishlegs & Hiccup & Ruffnut & Snotlout & Tuffnut, Baby Tooth & Jack Frost, Gobber the Belch & Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Gobber the Belch & Stoick the Vast, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood), Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Stoick the Vast, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless, Jack Frost & Wind (Guardians of Childhood), Stoick the Vast/Valka
Comments: 40
Kudos: 49





	1. Chapter 1

A loud snarl filled with frustration echoed through the bleak, dirt cavern Pitch Black called home as he watched yet another Night-Mare crumple before it could fully form. The problem wasn't that he lacked the sand he'd acquired from the Sandman and tainted so he could manipulate it as easily as the Golden Guardian could work with his. No, the problem was that he still lacked the power to create more than forty Night-Mares before they started failing. Even then he couldn't send them out too far from him with his power as weak as it was now. The further they were away from him, the more power they required from the beaten Pitch Black. A year ago, Pitch had been able to create and control hundreds, if not thousands of Night-Mares. He was set to take control over the world and relish in the delicious fear he would create during his reign. But then Jack Frost was chosen by the Man in the Moon to be the fifth Guardian and Pitch's plans crumpled as easily as his Night-Mare had done only moments ago.

Just the thought of the Winter Spirit had Pitch's lip curling up in distaste. He'd been so close to bringing Jack over to his side in Antarctica! So close he could almost taste victory! Jack had been going to accept the offer, Pitch just knew it but then he'd unwittingly showed his true desires and Jack had realised he was just going to be an instrument in Pitch's plans. It was a moment that Pitch had obsessively played over and over again in his mind during the year since his defeat at the hands of the Guardians and the children Jack had made friends with.

The glowing eyes of his remaining Night-Mares had Pitch wave them away, unwilling to look at the reminders of his failure any further. Though he'd mastered the fear his Night-Mares had latched on to when he realised he'd been beaten a year ago, Pitch knew they could sense his newest fear – his fear of remaining this weak and powerless for the rest of his existence – building with each day and the promise of a feed had turned some of his Night-Mares stubborn. Several snorted and shook their sandy manes as they refused to leave him and his growing fear.

"Away with you!" Pitch snapped, clamping down on his fear and releasing a trickle more power than he would've like to. The moves worked and his Night-Mares vanished into the darkness. Pitch played with the idea of sending them into the closest towns – particularly to Burgess, the town that Jamie, Jack, and their friends called home – but reluctantly decided against it. The power he'd need to maintain his connection with even a quarter of his Night-Mares if he sent them out tonight wasn't there for him to spare.

Pitch sighed in annoyance as he scowled at his home. The dirt cavern he'd carved with his power was bleak and dreary, with only a small amount of light shining through the cracks in the dirt of his ceiling – magically fortified so they wouldn't grow and the ceiling wouldn't cave in, no matter what happened to the ground above him – and from the Globe that sat in the room he'd had the Tooth Fairies caged in. Perhaps a normal human or even a spirit would've struggled to see in the dim lighting but, to Pitch Black, it was as bright as the daylight itself.

As they often did while he was alone, Pitch found his thoughts drifting back to Jack Frost. He replayed every one of their interactions over the last 300 years – limited as they may have been – to see if there was any way he could've won Jack over to his side. Though he was young – by Pitch's and the Guardians' standards – Pitch knew that Jack was powerful. He'd proven that during his fights with Pitch, up until the last one before Sandy had been resurrected at least. With careful training and guidance under his hand, Pitch knew that if he could've brought Jack to his side at any time before the Guardians showed interest in him, the two of them would've been unbeatable.

Pitch found himself snarling out the cursed name once more. "Jack Frost," echoed across the cavern slightly, each repetition adding to Pitch's ire.

So caught up in his thoughts was he that Pitch Black didn't notice anyone had entered his home until they spoke. "It seems like we both have a bone to pick with a certain Winter Spirit," the gravelly, aged voice rasped, causing Pitch to turn quickly to face the intruder.

His silver eyes widened minutely with surprise as he took in the figure in front of him. It was rare to see them outside of their home and Pitch couldn't recall a single time or story of him paying someone – let alone Pitch himself – a home visit. Eyes narrowing in suspicion, Pitch questioned the intruder. "Do we? What, pray tell, is your problem with the newest Guardian?" he asked, spitting the title as though it was a curse.

The lips of the spirit in front of him quirked upwards in amusement. "I'll be happy to tell you all the details you would like to hear about my problem with Jack Frost but," the spirit said, holding a finger up to stop Pitch from speaking, "not until we've come to an agreement regarding our partnership in this matter."

Pitch's brow quirked in amusement. "Partnership?" he repeated incredulously. If it weren't for the curious gazes of the slowly reforming Night-Mares, Pitch may have thought he was finally going mad and was simply imagining this interaction.

The spirit nodded. "Partnership," he repeated once more. "Your powers are weak. In fact, at this time, a newborn spirit would be able to best you in a confrontation," the spirit informed Pitch bluntly. The Spirit of Fear felt himself bristle at the callousness of the intruder's tone but found himself unable to refute his claims. "I will aid you in a battle against Jack – be he with the Guardians or not at the time – so we may both get what we desire," he said.

"How would you aid me? As you just pointed out, my power is limited," Pitch reminded him. "I have less than fifty Night-Mares to control and I cannot travel far, even using the shadows as I usually do. Even if I were to go up against Jack alone, he is more than capable of taking me down by himself in my current state," Pitch begrudgingly admitted.

The spirit chuckled. "Surely you know who I am," he said. "You know my powers and you know how I could aid you," he told him, absolutely no doubts in his voice as he called Pitch out. "I came to you as I believed you would be the best spirit to aid me in my plans for Jack. If your desire for revenge against him is not high enough for you to contemplate my assistance, please tell me now so I may stop wasting my time here and spend it finding one who will help with my plans," the spirit ordered, voice demanding and unwavering.

Pitch didn't hesitate. The spirit in front of him was not only offering him a chance to exact his revenge against Jack – something he'd never be able to do himself for another several years at least – but he was offering his aid and Pitch would be a fool not to take the assistance being offered from such a powerful spirit as he. "I think we can come to an agreement that'll benefit both of us," Pitch said. He thought he saw a glimmer of amusement in the ancient spirit's eye but flicked it aside as unimportant. "Now then, how about you tell me what our dear friend Jack has done to earn the displeasure of one such as yourself, Father Time?"

* * *

"I thought," Jack huffed as he swiped at another Night-Mare with his crooked staff, causing it to burst into the specks of tainted sand Pitch Black had made it from, "that you guys said," Jack paused to send a burst of ice at another Night-Mare that was sneaking up on Sandy, who gave Jack a silent nod of thanks, "Pitch would be down for years, if not centuries, after the epic beatdown Jamie and his friends joined us in giving him," he said, calling on the wind to sweep him upwards to allow two Night-Mares to collide, much like he had during the battle between Jack, the Guardians, and Pitch just before Pitch had managed to defeat Sandy.

"It's not like there's a rulebook for this type of bloody thing, Snowflake!" Bunny snapped as he took a leap at a tree, using it to launch himself in the air with his powerful hindlegs and releasing both his boomerangs, slicing through a dozen Night-Mares that were in his weapons' paths.

"He shouldn't have been able to recover enough power to pull this kind of attack off. Not after barely a year passing since his defeat!" North boomed, his thick Russian accent echoing through the wooded area the five Guardians were currently battling in. "He must have some help coming from somewhere!" North declared, slashing at Night-Mare after Night-Mare with his two large broadswords.

The Yetis and elves North had summoned from his home in the North Pole with snow-globes were making their way through the Night-Mares at a very efficient rate and Jack couldn't help but be glad that North had called on their aide the moment he realised the Guardians had been ambushed. There was still no sign of Pitch Black himself and Jack had estimated that they'd been fighting for close to twenty minutes. He was already growing tired from the seemingly unending stream of Night-Mares and was only using his winter-related powers as a last resort. If it could be dealt with by moving out of the way or a swift hit with his crook, that's exactly how Jack was dealing with their enemy. Jack landed on top of one of Bunny's stone golems for a quick reprieve before he called upon the wind and launched himself towards where Tooth was when he noticed the fairy was starting to be cornered.

"Thanks, Jack!" Tooth said, voice drenched in relief as Jack took down Night-Mare after Night-Mare to help get the fairy some room to recover from the relentless attack. The six baby tooth fairies with her chittered their own thanks from the tree-line. The seventh who was normally with Tooth and acted as one of her generals was with Jack, having been riding in his hoodie when they'd been attacked.

Baby Tooth had grown exceptionally close with Jack since their adventure at the Tooth Palace and the one-on-one fight between Pitch and Jack at Antarctica and she still took every opportunity she could to hang around with Jack. With the battle going on, both Baby Tooth and Jack had come to the silent and mutual agreement that she would stay in his hoodie until everything was dealt with. She and the other baby tooth fairies weren't big enough to do any real damage to the Night-Mares and after their last traumatic run in with the black sand monsters, Jack couldn't blame them for hanging back where they wouldn't be spotted.

"Any time!" Jack grunted as he destroyed another tainted sand horse before finding himself with another four approaching, yellow eyes filled with nothing but hate for them. "Do you think Pitch is actually gonna show up or is he just gonna keep sending his creatures after us in hopes that they'll wear us down before he drains all of his power?" Jack asked Tooth, obliterating the four Night-Mares who'd tried to attack him simultaneously.

Before Tooth could answer – likely to scold him of asking such a question out loud – the rich, smooth voice that was unmistakably Pitch Black's sounded from the dark forest near Jack and Tooth. "Come now, Jack. There's no need for us to rush to the main show. Why not take the time to enjoy the opening act I worked so hard to put on for you?"

Jack looked frantically around the direction the voice was coming from but between the shadows and the Night-Mares, he couldn't see anything. Before he could make some kind of retort, North got in first. "Show yourself, Pitch! What is meaning of this attack?" the Russian Guardian asked, voice booming as he continued cutting down any Night-Mare who came near him.

A loud, disappointed sigh sounded from the forest before movement in the corner of Jack's left eye caught his attention. Glancing over, he spotted the dark silhouette of Pitch emerge from the shadow of one of the trees but before he could do anything now that their main opponent was in view, a gold sand whip snapped straight for the Spirit of Fear. Pitch summoned his large scythe and sliced Sandy's whip before it could contact him and Sandy wasn't the only one to look angry or annoyed that his attack didn't work.

"Now, now, Sandy. Your leader wants to know why I've decided to attack you now. Surely you want to know the same thing. How would you find out if you managed to defeat me before I could tell you?" Pitch asked leisurely.

Sandy gave a silent snarl in response but looked over to North, obviously asking for him to take over the conversation while he got back to helping Jack, Tooth, Bunny, and their allies with the Night-Mares since Pitch hadn't had his dark sand creatures slow or stop their assault on them. North turned to face Pitch, trusting someone to have his back while he kept introducing Night-Mares to his swords whenever one was close enough to do so. "What is meaning of this? For that matter, how did you recover enough power to create this many Night-Mares and sustain them so quickly?" North asked.

Though he was still fighting alongside Tooth while aiding his other friends, Jack kept one ear on the conversation happening below him. Because of this, Jack didn't see the Night-Mare behind him and Tooth's warning came too late as Jack felt something solid and heavy hit him in his back. Letting out a startled and pained gasp, Jack blinked away the spots in his vision and tightened his grip on his staff, pulling himself out of the free fall the Night-Mare had sent him into.

A quick check assured him that Baby Tooth was definitely okay and still safe in his hood after that blow and Jack sighed in relief before turning to Tooth. "We're good!" Jack told the worried Toothiana as he got right back into the fight, ignoring the prickling on his neck that told him he was being watched. He just assumed it was Pitch and he refused to give the Dark spirit the satisfaction of seeing him injured. That Night-Mare had packed a punch and Jack knew he'd be bruised for a couple of days. "Cotton-Tail, on your right!" Jack called out to the Guardian of Hope before he twisted in mid-air, successfully avoiding another hit from a Night-Mare.

"Keep your eyes on your own fight, Jack!" Bunny shouted back, even as he turned to deal with the Night-Mares Jack had warned him about.

Jack just grinned as he focused on splitting his focus between the Night-Mares, his team and the conversation happening below him. Even though Sandy couldn't technically speak, Jack noticed that the Guardian of Dreams was still making himself heard by way of his sand symbols. North had the biggest challenge of watching Sandy and working out what he was saying, trying to converse with Pitch and, most importantly, keeping the Night-Mares on him at bay. Jack couldn't hear what Pitch was currently saying but he did decide to keep himself fluid amongst his teammates and right now, North and Sandy could do with the reprieve the most.

Directing his best friend, Jack had the wind slam him down in the middle of the trio. The moment his bare feet touched the cold earth, Jack released the small amount of winter power he'd built up since the last time he'd used it. There was a crackle of blue power and the temperature dropped dramatically as Jack directed his ice to create spikes that surrounded himself, North, Sandy, and Pitch and impaled at least one Night-Mare on each of them, effectively destroying a solid fifteen of the black creatures in one move. The ice Jack had created was fragile and had shattered the moment it had entered the Night-Mares, having been strong enough to destroy them but weak enough that they wouldn't be in the way of his teammates. Since he'd succeeded in his goal, Jack gave North and Sandy a wink before he shot back up into the air.

"Good job, Jacky-boy!" North boomed appreciatively as he and Sandy took the reprieve given to them to get more than three words in at a time with Pitch now that a good portion of the Night-Mares plaguing them were no longer an issue.

"Any time, North!" Jack called back, swinging his staff out and smashing through another Night-Mare. He glimpsed Sandy creating a bowler hat and tipping it flamboyantly at him, causing Jack to let out some laughter as he bowed at the waist in mid-air, seemingly ignoring the Night-Mares still charging around them. He was sure he heard a scoff from a certain Easter Bunny but Jack didn't let that get to him like he might've a year ago. It was just another sign of how well their relationship had grown in that time and Jack – though he wouldn't have admitted it ever out loud – was glad that he could call the Australian-accented rabbit a friend.

"Tell us, Pitch. Why attack us now?" North asked, dragging Jack's attention back to the conversation, even as he put another Night-Mare down. "I would've thought you would've spent longer in your lair to build up your power before you tried something like this against us," North commented casually, as if he and Pitch were merely in the Workshop having a cup of tea rather than in the middle of some random forest, fighting against Night-Mares whose numbers never seemed to run out.

"Well, I must admit that it wasn't entirely my idea," Pitch revealed, getting the five Guardians' attention far quicker than he had when he entered the battlefield. There was a slight twitch in Pitch's features that told Jack that the Spirit of Fear wasn't awfully impressed by that but the flicker of annoyance was gone as quickly as it had appeared.

"What do you mean?" North asked, slicing his swords through two Night-Mares before bringing them together to stab a third that tried to use the destruction of its two fellows to its advantage.

Pitch sighed, as though irritated by North's question and it took everything in Jack to aim his next blast of ice at a convergence of Night-Mares rather than Pitch's face. "It's blatantly obvious what I meant, North," Pitch said, rolling his eyes as he deftly dodged one of Bunny's boomerangs. "I mean that I am working with someone else and it was _his_ idea to attack you now," Pitch revealed.

"Who is your accomplice?" North immediately demanded, brandishing a sword threateningly towards Pitch, who merely looked at it with a slight distasteful curl to his lips.

"I've been assured that all of you are quite well-acquainted with him. Including your newest member," Pitch said, hawk-like eyes glancing up to where Jack was hovering above them all with Tooth as his only air-support.

"That doesn't really narrow it down, Pitch," Jack pointed out as he hit another Night-Mare. He had, after all, had to keep himself entertained for the 300 years he was by himself and most of that time was spent seeking out, trying to make friends with before eventually annoying the crap out of every spirit he could find when they ignored or dismissed him. As for the Guardians, they'd been around for centuries longer than he had so he would've been more surprised to hear that the Guardians _didn't_ know this particular spirit.

"I didn't mean for my comment to be helpful, Jack," Pitch said, almost spitting his name as a curse and Jack wanted to roll his eyes. Though his interactions with Pitch from before their fight a year ago were extremely limited, Jack would've never pegged him for someone to still be feeling petty over something like Jack not joining his side but it seemed like Jack was wrong. "Our mutual acquaintance will reveal himself when he feels like it and I don't wish to ruin his grand entrance," Pitch informed them.

"Dramatic much?" Jack muttered as he watched Tooth's six as she took on more Night-Mares. His temper was never something he had good control over – too much anger and grief had affected him in the last 300 years of his existence from his being ignored – and he could feel his hold slipping on it at a dramatic pace right now. It was mainly due to the amount of Night-Mares that seemed to be coming from nowhere and whose numbers never seemed to decrease but Jack also knew a fair amount of it was because of Pitch's refusal to just give them a straight and honest answer.

Something in the forest caught Jack's eye in the exact moment he was about to snap at Pitch for a clearer answer or – better yet – the damned name of the spirit who had apparently joined him. Whatever he saw only lasted a moment but it was long enough to bring him up short in what he was doing so he could drift closer to try and get a better look at it. It disappeared almost before he could see anything but – to Jack's surprise – another one popped up only a moment later and soon the answer to one of their most pressing questions was given to him. Someone – not Pitch since Jack had never heard of him being able to use them – was using portals to bring more Night-Mares onto the battlefield.

Jack went to tell North what he'd discovered immediately but something else caught his attention. Bunny and Sandy had just teamed together and took out six Night-Mares on their own, which was an awesome achievement but Jack was quick to notice another portal opening and six Night-Mares rushing out of it. It didn't take Jack too long to realise what that meant. Someone was using these portals to somehow bring Night-Mares that had been destroyed on the field back to life to keep fighting. That had to mean that either someone was bringing these Night-Mares back to life with these portals _or_ they were turning back time to bring them back. And since the only beings he knew of who could bring something back to life were Life and Death and both ancient spirits were extremely neutral – which meant they would never take sides in a battle as insignificant as this – which left Jack thinking of only one spirit who could possibly be helping Pitch. The only thing he didn't know was _why_.

"North!" Jack called urgently as soon as he'd put the pieces together. The large Russian man turned to face him; mouth opened to ask what Jack needed when their attention was grabbed by a panicked shriek and several equally panicked twitters, one of which was emitted right beside Jack's left ear. Jack's blue eyes opened in fear as he watched a portal open up directly behind Tooth but instead of a Night-Mare or three coming out, it seemed to be trying to pull _her_ into it. "Tooth!" Jack's shout of her name was echoed by two others but Jack barely noticed, his attention completely on his trapped teammate. He didn't even notice the unbelievably strong grip Baby Tooth had on his hair as she watched her queen with fear.

They could all see the fear in Tooth's wide, purple eyes as she strained against the pull of the portal. Anything Jack had been about to say was forgotten as he realised he was quite literally the only person who could help her in that moment. None of the yetis, elves, or stone golems could fly and neither could North or Bunny. A glimpse showed him that Sandy was now being ambushed by Night-Mares, keeping the Golden Guardian's attention away from Tooth's plight and he knew the seven baby tooth fairies would be pulled into the portal long before they reached their queen. As the only one who could fly, was big enough to do so, and wasn't being inundated by Night-Mares, Jack had to act. So he did.

Getting as close to the portal as he could and making sure he was angled so he was facing the decreasing gap between Tooth and the portal directly, Jack lined up his staff and took a deep, steadying breath. He had _one_ shot to get this right or else his blast would serve to destabilise Tooth without giving her the push needed to shove her out of harm's way. Letting his power build, Jack released the breath he'd been holding and released the ice attack he'd been building up in the same moment. It worked exactly as Jack had hoped; hitting closer to Tooth than the portal and releasing one of his warmer ice attacks so as to not freeze the Guardian of Memories fragile wings. The force of the explosion propelled Tooth forward, freeing her from the pull of the portal and ensuring she wouldn't be taken from them in that moment.

The fairy rightened herself mid-tumble and shot Jack a grateful look as the cheers and praises from North and Bunny made their way to Jack's ears. "Thank you, Jack!" Tooth gasped out as she tried to catch her breath.

"Anytime," Jack told her, giving her a smirk before he remembered what he'd been about to tell North before Tooth had found herself in trouble.

Turning back to face North, Jack heard the sound of rapidly rushing wind before he suddenly found himself feeling as though a vacuum had just opened behind him. A spike of fear and adrenaline raced through him as Jack struggled to keep a grip on his staff and try to get himself out of this predicament. He felt himself panic slightly as his hoodie was pulled tightly against his throat, causing him some slight trouble breathing. The only thing he could hear over the noise of the portal behind him was Baby Tooth's scared chittering from where she was hidden in his hood but he couldn't do anything to try and reassure her. Jack glimpsed down and saw his team's faces, knowing there was nothing they could do and from the looks of it, they knew it too. Much like it had been with Tooth, two of them were grounded and the one who wasn't was battling against a horde of Night-Mares that Jack now realised was intentionally done. The only spirit who could help didn't have the power necessary to help him, leaving Tooth looking both fearful and distraught as she tried to figure out how to get him out of the pull of the portal without endangering herself. Jack could see the triumphant smirk on Pitch's face as the Spirit of Fear watched his dilemma with immense pleasure and if Jack didn't think it would backfire horribly on him, he would've given into the urge to blast Pitch's face full of ice.

A moment later, there was a voice _in_ Jack's mind, startling him badly enough that he was almost sucked into the portal. _"Don't worry, Jack. I just have a simple task I need you to complete for me while you're gone. I'll bring you back to your own time once you've completed it… eventually."_

Before Jack could process what the voice had said or the fact that Father Time had somehow been inside his head – an ability he didn't even know the ancient spirit had – a Night-Mare came out of nowhere and head-butted Jack in the centre of his chest, pushing him through the portal before it promptly exploded into sand from the force of the portal's pull. He didn't even have the time to let out a gasp of pain from the Night-Mare's attack before he was through the portal and the portal was closing in front of him. The last thing he saw through the portal as he struggled to keep himself floating in mid-air was the tearful face of Tooth as she stretched out a hand as though she could still grab him and pull him to safety before the portal winked out of existence completely.

* * *

Jack felt a strangled sob catch in his throat as the weight and reality of his situation hit him with the force of one of Bunny's kicks. He was stuck somewhere he didn't recognise, hovering over an ocean that both looked like every other ocean he'd seen and completely unfamiliar at the same time and with a wind around him that felt like a complete stranger to him. The wind was brushing against him in what Jack could only describe as a curious manner, which told him that this wind didn't recognise him either and the feeling of loss at his best friend and longest companion suddenly acting as though he was completely unknown to it hurt in a way Jack hadn't felt since the first time someone walked through him on the night he was made into Jack Frost. On top of all of that, he didn't even know what Father Time was asking of him! The ancient spirit hadn't so much as given him a clue as to what job Jack was supposed to carry out for him and he just knew that Father Time would refuse to bring him back until it was completed, which meant Jack could be stuck wherever and whenever he was for centuries!

A soft, concerned twitter got Jack's attention before the impending panic attack could set in and he soon found himself with Baby Tooth right in front of him, small eyes filled with worry and affection as she tried to soothe him as best she could. Despite having spent more time with Baby Tooth in the last year than he had with the Guardians, Jack still wasn't fluent in the baby tooth fairies' language, though he was slowly starting to understand them a bit more clearly. However, it was blindingly obvious that Baby Tooth was really trying to comfort him and he felt himself calm down in the face of that honest and sincere attempt.

"Sorry, Baby Tooth," Jack said, giving the little fairy a half grin. "I didn't mean to freak out on you," he apologised.

Baby Tooth's features immediately gained a cross expression as she scoldingly chittered at him, waggling her little finger as she lectured at him for – as Jack quickly gathered – apologising unnecessarily to her. Jack couldn't stop the grin from forming on his face at the lecture and was amazed at just how much weight seemed to lift from him just from the familiar action. It was like this one action had managed to remind Jack that he wasn't completely alone in this situation and that he could get through this and do whatever it was Father Time hadn't bothered telling him the details about.

It seemed as though Baby Tooth's lecture was petering out now and Jack took the chance she gave him when she took in a small breath to smile at her and stroke her spine gently. "Thank you, Baby Tooth," Jack said sincerely.

Baby Tooth gave him a look to let him know that she was well aware that he was trying to get out of the rest of her lecture but it seemed the genuineness in his voice and the stroke down her spine had won her over enough that she didn't finish it. Instead, she settled for petting his cheek and rubbing hers against his in her version of a hug. Jack carefully cupped the little fairy, doing his best to not freeze her or her wings – a feat that he was getting better at since it had been a while since he'd had to be careful about how cold he literally was around others – and returned the hug. He kept the hug going until he felt her wingtips brush against his palm, her cue that she wanted to face him again so he obligingly released her.

Jack didn't need the questioning chirp to know what she was asking thanks to how expressive the little fairy was. The Guardian of Fun gave her a smile. "I'm doing better now," he promised her and received an almost silent, relieved sigh from the hummingbird-like fairy. Deciding they really needed to move on from this conversation – as wonderful as it was to have someone other than the wind worry about his emotions, it was still odd to him – they did need to discuss what they were going to do now. "Alright, Baby Tooth," Jack said, clapping his hands together with a lot less awkwardness than one might have expected from someone holding a staff. The fairy in question chirped as she straightened mid-air, recognising Jack's serious tone. "Let's try and figure out what in Manny's name we're supposed to be doing here," he said, getting an enthusiastic and agreeing chirp from his friend.

Jack didn't know what it was that had him snatching Baby Tooth from mid-air with zero warning, causing the aforementioned fairy to squeak in protest and alarm, and hold her close to his chest but he was certainly glad he did when not a heartbeat later, five massive, hot blurs raced past him at a speed greater than Jack had seen any non-magical animal or object move before. The wind battered and buffered him from the force of these creatures flying right past him so strongly that it took far more effort to keep a hold of his staff and Baby Tooth than Jack had ever extended before, including the several times he'd accidentally found himself in the middle of one of his own blizzards. He may have learned after the first time he was caught in a blizzard of his own making that he had no control over it once he released the storm but it hadn't stopped him from trying to slow them down to give people time to move out of their way so they wouldn't freeze to death on at least six other occasions.

A tiny, annoyed chirp caught Jack's attention once the creatures had passed them by and Jack had managed to stabilise himself with the wind's help. Chuckling slightly, he released the irked and confused Baby Tooth. "Sorry," he apologised. "I have no clue what that was that passed us though. You didn't manage to sneak a peek?" he asked her but got a shake of the head in return. "Yeah, I didn't think you would've," Jack admitted. "Do you think they might have something with why Father Time sent us here?" he asked, though it was obvious by the tone of his voice that he didn't fully believe that.

Baby Tooth seemed to contemplate his question but before she could answer, her gaze widened as she stared at something over Jack's shoulder. At the exact same time, Jack felt several _somethings_ behind him just before he heard a low growl that seemed to be somewhere between threatening and curious. Spinning quickly in mid-air while also having the wind push him backwards a couple of metres – catching Baby Tooth as he moved – Jack found himself face to face with what he could only assume were the five creatures that had rushed past him not even half a minute before and he could feel his jaw drop as Baby Tooth dived into his hoodie, both for protection and so Jack wouldn't have to worry about her if this turned into a fight.

In front of him were five of the most unique creatures Jack had ever seen in his life. For starters, one of them had not one but two heads and two tails. Each head had sharp, needle-shaped teeth, a short horn in between two large, yellow, lizard-like eyes, and a forked tongue. The creature itself was mostly green but there was some dark reds and oranges mottled over its back and wings while its underbelly was a pale yellow.

Then there was the massive, boulder-shaped and coloured creature with short, stubby legs, short wings that seemed to defy everything Jack knew about physics (thanks, Jamie!) and small but thick tail. Surprisingly, this creature didn't seem to be looking at Jack menacingly but rather with curiousity and wariness.

The third creature had the most menacing look on its face with streams of steam coming out of its mouth and in between its sharp teeth, yellow eyes narrowed in a glare and two sets of wicked looking horns on its head. The red and black scales covering its massive body and wings reminded Jack of flames and scorch marks, which put Jack on edge a little. Unlike most of the other creatures in front of him, this one seemed to only have two legs while the middle of its wings had one talon each, reminding Jack somewhat of a bat.

The fourth creature was stunning to look at if Jack was being honest. It also had only two hind-legs and talon-tipped wings much like a bat but it reminded Jack more of a curious bird with the way its head kept darting slightly, trying to keep the hovering Jack in its sight. It had a large head with pointed teeth in its wide jaw, a large, wide horn that grew directly above its nostrils and between its yellow eyes as well as a crown of yellow spikes on its head, obviously there to protect its neck. Its beautiful sky-blue and sunshine-yellow mottled colouring covered most of its body before turning into alternating stripes down its long, almost whip-like tail.

The final creature hovered centred in the 'V' formation the five creatures were assembled in. It was only one colour and that was a black deep enough that Jack was sure he'd lose sight of it at night, even with a full moon helping light the way. Unlike the other creatures, this one had light green eyes that were watching him with a calculating look, telling Jack that this was the creature who had growled at him. It had wide, long, bat-like wings but four short-ish legs and a long tail. Jack glimpsed a flash of bright red at the end of the tail and his eyes flicked to the colour before realising it was some kind of prosthetic. Jack took all of this information in within mere moments but the creatures themselves weren't even the most surprising thing in front of him.

The most surprising thing about these creatures was the fact that every single one of them had a human sitting just behind their heads – with there being a pair of humans on the double-headed dragon – and all of them looked as shocked to see him in the sky as Jack was to see them. A couple of them were trying to hide that shock behind a scrutinising look or a glare but all of them were stunned by his appearance. Jack's own shock seemed to slow his mind down so much that it hadn't even registered to him yet that these six people could _see_ him there in mid-air. There was a tickle on his right ear that told him Baby Tooth was peeking out from behind his shoulder to get a good look at what was in front of them but he barely noticed it.

"What the –?" the rider on the midnight-black creature seemed to stutter as he obviously finished realising what exactly he was looking at. "Who are you and how are you flying without a dragon?" the leader – Jack was assuming he was the leader thanks to his position in the formation and the fact that he was the first to speak – demanded.

The word 'dragon' sent Jack's mind racing once more as he quickly put two and two together and realised that that was what each of these people riding. _Dragons._ Somehow he was more astonished at the fact that there were such things as dragons than he was at the fact that these people were riding them. But the teenager's question also caused his mind to jolt with a realisation. "You can see me?" Jack asked, voice soft and awed, just as it had been a year ago when Jamie first saw him in his room the night of the disastrous Easter.

The six humans exchanged glances while their creatu – no, dragons – watched Jack carefully. "Of course we can. Why wouldn't we be able to?" the leader asked once more, a crease forming in the middle of his brow as his green eyes assessed Jack.

Jack barely managed to stop the hysterical snort that threatened to sound at the obvious curiousity and disbelief in the brunette's voice, as though he couldn't think of a single reason why it would be weird to be able to see Jack while he himself was sitting on the back of a real-life dragon! Jack almost couldn't believe how absurd his life had just become in the last five minutes and, really, that was saying a lot considering some of the things he'd seen and done over the last 300 years as the Winter Spirit. His thoughts, however, were interrupted before Jack could even think of an answer to give the brunette.

"Never mind that." Jack's attention was grabbed by the blonde teenager sitting on the blue and yellow, bird-like dragon whose colours Jack had admired. Her blue eyes were narrowed with suspicion and a promised threat that if Jack tried to move, she'd run him through with the impressive looking battle-axe attached to her back. "How are you flying without a dragon?" she demanded, repeating one of the brunette's first questions.

This put Jack in a rather uncomfortable position. He had no clue how to answer her. It wasn't like with Jamie and his friends last year. They were kids and they'd all heard the name 'Jack Frost' numerous times before, even if they hadn't believed in him as they did Santa or the Easter Bunny, and it wasn't like it was with other spirits who _could_ see him but elected to ignore him once they realised who he was. Spirits, fairies, elves, and other magical beings were predominately believed in by children and very rarely by an adult to the point where the adult could see them but they had to fully believe in them to see them. All spirits had a unique something about them that identified them to other spirits so that coupled with the fact that these six people were asking who he was and how he was flying told Jack that they were, in fact, regular people. People who rode dragons but ordinary humans, nonetheless. They all looked to be around the age Jack was before he went into the ice, if not a couple of years older, which meant they were well past the age where they still held onto the childish belief of fairies and Santa Claus so by all accounts, they shouldn't have been able to see him there.

He didn't know why he didn't panic or flee the first moment he realised these were dragons in front of him – the whole 'able to breath fire' thing was not something Jack, as a winter spirit, liked the idea of – but Jack hadn't. In fact, there was a feeling in his gut telling him that he should stick by this odd group and North had always said that gut-feelings were to be trusted so Jack did just that. "My name is Jack Frost," he said, looking at the six people and five dragons as he spoke his name, wanting to see whether there'd be any recognition or anything, really. He was mildly surprised that he didn't get one. While not as well-known as Bunny or North, Jack Frost was still known in most countries, if only as a warning about cold weather. The fact that these humans could see him but didn't know his name only added to the mystery for Jack. "As for your other question, it requires a fairly lengthy answer and I'd much prefer to do that somewhere that's not above the ocean," he told them, glancing meaningfully at the deep blue salty water beneath them.

The six humans once again exchanged a look with each and Jack was a little annoyed to see that the suspicion on most of their faces hadn't abetted in the slightest but he was relieved when the brunette in front of him nodded. "I think the dragons would prefer it if we didn't have them stay in a hover like this for much longer," he said, reaching out to scratch his dragon behind one of its ears and earning a pleased trill from the beast. "There's an island not too far from here we can talk on. Keep up."

That was all the warning Jack had before the five dragons dived and circled slightly to the left, heading in that direction but at a much slower pace than they had been going when they first rushed past Jack. "This is going to be fun," Jack said, sounding like he didn't fully believe that. He did, however, call upon the wind to carry him behind the dragons so he could follow them. The unsure chirp he heard from Baby Tooth didn't make him feel any less like sure that this whole thing wasn't going to end in a horrible catastrophe.


	2. Chapter 2

Jack had been following the group of dragons and their riders – unsubtly flanked by the green and yellow, two-headed dragon and its riders and the red and black dragon and its rider, all of whom were keeping an annoyingly obvious eye on Jack – for nearly ten minutes and he could still feel his mind trying to wrap itself around what was happening and believe it. He'd even asked Baby Tooth to jab him with her beak, resulting in him slapping a hand to his neck instinctively at the sharp prick and earning suspicious glances from everyone bar the teenager riding the black dragon, but that had done nothing except confirm this wasn't a dream or hallucination. That confirmation, however, didn't seem to make any difference to his mind since Jack continually found himself waiting to wake up. Baby Tooth hadn't so much as chirped since Jack had started following the group and the Winter Spirit couldn't blame her. He wouldn't want the attention of a creature who wouldn't even realise it had swallowed him whole if he could help it either.

"We're almost there," the leader called, turning back to face Jack. His green eyes still held some confusion, wariness, and disbelief in them as they locked with Jack's but Jack didn't think he could really fault him for it. His own blue eyes probably reflected those feelings back at him.

Jack didn't say anything but he did give a nod to show he'd heard him and that seemed to be enough for the brunette to turn back so he was facing forward. Jack could see that the blonde on the blue and yellow dragon still had a displeased expression on her face and knew that she was still against the idea of speaking with Jack anywhere without many weapons aimed at him. That conversation between her and the brunette hadn't been quiet and it had lasted most of the flight. Jack honestly found himself admiring her dedication to her argument and had admitted that she'd raised many good points that would've likely had Jack second-guessing his decision if he'd been the brunette she was arguing with. To Jack's surprise and confusion, the brunette didn't seem as distrusting as his companions were.

It only took another half a minute for the island the brunette had to have been taking them towards to appear on the horizon. To Jack's relief, it didn't look like it was going to be awfully hot on land, which meant he probably wouldn't have to try and combat it by lowering his body temperature as much as possible. It was an ability that not only took a fair amount of power and concentration to pull off – especially over a long period of time – but would also result in Baby Tooth being uncomfortable and would probably force her out into the open so she wouldn't freeze. The island was small and there was a beach that Jack could see they were aiming for but there was nothing truly remarkable about it. There were no buildings that Jack could see and while there was a thick lining of trees separating the beach from everything else, the rest of the island appeared to be made up of flat plains covered with grass and rocky outcrops that offered some sort of cover to any animal life on the island.

Far sooner than Jack had hoped for, the group of dragon riders and dragon were diving, aiming straight for the sandy beach. Jack hesitated for a moment – his brain having finally accepted there were dragons in front of him and was now making him question whether following them was really the greatest idea he'd ever had – but he did follow them. The two dragons flanking him noticed his hesitation but it seemed like their riders hadn't, which Jack thought was surprising since the three humans had barely taken their eyes off him the entire flight. Jack could feel the air warming as they descended but, as he'd thought, it wasn't enough to make him anything other than slightly uncomfortable and wanting to seek out shade.

It was for that reason that Jack let the dragons land first, getting an idea of where he could land without being in the way but that would let him make an easy escape if he had to. Once the fifth dragon had landed, Jack asked the wind to carry him over to where the trees were so he could rest in the shade of them and hopefully slow down any possibility of overheating. His bare feet touched the ground, back to the trees so he could keep the dragons in sight, and he felt the cool sand cover his feet, causing him to sigh lightly in relief. Burned feet were no fun, after all. As the dragon riders dismounted their dragons, Jack took the opportunity to check on Baby Tooth.

"How you doing in there?" Jack whispered, lips barely moving as he kept his gaze on the approaching humans, absentmindedly taking in the prosthetic attached to the brunette's left leg. Baby Tooth chittered lightly in a nervous but reassuring tone before Jack felt a tiny amount of pressure on his neck that lasted only the barest of moments before it disappeared and knew Baby Tooth had placed her hand there in comfort. "Glad to hear it. You let me know immediately if you think something's going to happen or you have a problem, okay?" he said, getting a confirming chirp before his attention was fully turned to the dragon riders assembled in front of him. From the looks on the faces of most of them, Jack was rather grateful that the sun was behind the trees, letting their shadows stretch most of the way to the beach so Jack could fly straight up without risking being caught by a tree branch if he needed to.

"You said your name was Jack Frost, right?" the leader asked. It was normal for him to hear his name said with a questioning tone but for Jack to hear his name said like that while the person asking could see him, well, that was exceedingly rare and it took Jack a moment before he answered.

"Yeah," the spirit said, eyes flicking to each person and dragon before he focused back on the brunette speaking to him. "What are yours?" he asked immediately, not ashamed to admit that he was trying to delay the inevitable conversation that was the whole reason they were on this island for. He still didn't know what he was going to tell these people. Yes, they'd seen him flying seemingly unsupported by anything so he'd have to explain that but he wasn't sure whether he was going to tell them the whole truth about what he was and could do. But then, he wasn't sure how he'd not be able to tell them everything regarding his powers and nature while giving them a believable story about his ability to fly.

The brunette's eyes flashed as though he knew what Jack was doing but he didn't call him out on it. Instead, he gestured to himself with one hand and placed the other on his dragon. "My name is Hiccup and this is Toothless," he said, scratching Toothless' scales in a way that had the dragon growling in happiness. Jack raised a brow at the highly unusual names but he didn't comment. It wasn't like unusual names weren't unheard of in the spirit world, after all. "To my right are Astrid and her dragon, Stormfly," Hiccup continued, waving the hand that wasn't on Toothless towards the aforementioned pair. Jack's eyes flicked over the blonde and her dragon and nodded politely towards both of them. He wasn't surprised when that action only caused Astrid to narrow her blue eyes further as she scrutinised him. "On their right is Fishlegs and his dragon, Meatlug." The chubby teenager had an arm wrapped around the neck of the brown, bumpy-skinned dragon, and both of them were regarding Jack with curious looks. "On my left is Snotlout and his dragon, Hookfang." The broad-shouldered, raven-haired teenager bared his teeth in what Jack assumed was meant to be a threatening way while his dragon hissed, releasing a curl of steam out of its mouth while its yellow eyes watched Jack with as much scrutiny as Astrid did. "And finally, those are the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and their dragon, Barf and Belch," Hiccup said, wrapping up the introductions. The twins had their arms crossed against their chests as they watched Jack and the spirit found himself looking for the differences immediately between the two now that he was face-to-face with them. Their dragon had both its heads bent down so they were peering over the shoulder of one of the twins while keeping Jack in their sights.

"Nice to meet all of you," Jack said, the polite response falling from his lips automatically even as his mind reeled with the names he was given and the fact that there were real-life dragons sitting not five metres from him. Their close proximity to him had Jack tighten his grip on his staff, a move that did not go unnoticed by Hiccup and Astrid, at least. All the myths and legends of dragons being able to breathe fire were playing through Jack's mind as background noise while he stood there in the shade of the trees behind him, making sure he was alert for any sign that one of the dragons would attack him so he could be prepared to defend himself and Baby Tooth or escape if they needed to.

"Well, now that we all know each other," Astrid's voice was clipped with impatience and a hint of sarcasm, "tell us how you were able to fly without a dragon," she demanded. To Jack's amusement, Hiccup looked like he wanted to sigh and/or run a hand down his face but he somehow managed to not give into that urge.

The dilemma Jack had been facing since he started following the dragons and their riders to this island was still unresolved and the spirit still had no idea what he was going to say so he decided to do what North always said he should in this kind of situation; he went with his gut. "I wasn't flying. Not technically," Jack told them, earning several obviously disbelieving expressions. "I was riding the wind," he said honestly, almost laughing at the gobsmacked looks on everyone's faces. The twins' mouths were gaping open in shock. "My name is Jack Frost and I am the Spirit of Winter. My closest companion is the wind, who I can hitch a ride with so I can travel from country to country with ease," he told them.

No one spoke for several moments after Jack finished explaining how he was hovering in mid-air. They were all seemingly busy trying to process what he'd said and, considering how long it took him to get his head around the whole dragon thing, Jack was willing to give them as long as they needed. The dragons were all regarding Jack with open curiousity now while their humans were working through what Jack had said and it clicked for the Winter Spirit that the dragons that he'd been thinking unfairly of as beasts had understood what he'd said, which made Jack question just how intelligent the dragons truly were. Toothless was regarding him with a look that made Jack feel as though this dragon was somehow looking inside his mind and that was a truly unsettling thought.

"'Spirit of Winter'?" It seemed as though that part of Jack's explanation was what Fishlegs was planning on addressing first and Jack almost sighed as he turned to the portly teenager. Even though he knew he would face questions over that title, he had kind of hoped it would be lost in the grand scheme of what he'd said.

"Yeah," Jack confirmed with a nod. "I only look human," he told them, having decided to keep following North's advice. "I'm not actually human though. Not in the way I assume you six are," he said, gesturing with the hand that wasn't clutching tightly to his staff at the six humans in front of him.

"What does that mean?" Astrid demanded immediately. "How can you look human but not be one? I can't see any obvious differences between you and any other person," she said, her eyes narrowed once more with suspicion.

This time Jack did sigh, something that only seemed to make Astrid bristle and cause Hiccup to lay a calming hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off almost immediately but since she didn't attack Jack, the spirit figured the gesture had worked. "I'm a spirit," Jack told her. "I was born a human then when I was 17," Jack wasn't actually sure of what his age was before he went into the ice after saving his sister but he'd asked Jamie and their friends how old he looked and they all agreed he seemed around 17 to them so he'd accepted it, "I was turned into the Winter Spirit. I don't age, I don't technically need food or sleep to survive, and I have powers no ordinary human could possibly have," he explained to her. "I don't even know if I can die. I certainly haven't yet and I've certainly suffered some injuries that would've killed an ordinary human," that last part was muttered more to himself than to the humans, whose shock was coming back in full force, "but I didn't die from them. Doesn't mean I can't die though. I just haven't found what could kill me yet," he added with a casual shrug.

"Is that your way of threatening us?!" Snotlout demanded and Jack was amused to notice that he wasn't the only one giving the rough-looking teenager a confused look.

"I'm not following," Jack admitted. "How was anything I just said a threat?" he asked curiously. He could feel the indignant look Baby Tooth was giving Snotlout from where she was watching behind Jack's neck from the safety of his hair and hoodie.

"You just told us you can't die!" Snotlout blustered, looking angry that he had to explain himself. "Is that your way of saying that anything we try against you won't work and that you could easily kill or capture us?" the raven-haired teenager demanded, eyes flicking to his fellow dragon riders, as though looking for some support.

"I also said that I didn't know if I was actually immortal or if I just hadn't found what could kill me yet," Jack pointed out, earning himself a snarl from the now-embarrassed teenager. "But, to answer your question, no, it wasn't a threat," Jack told him, just in case someone else had the same thought in their mind.

"If you're a spirit, how come we can see you?" Hiccup asked, getting Jack's attention. "Shouldn't spirits be invisible?" he asked, brow furrowing slightly in confusion.

"You shouldn't be able to see me," Jack told him honestly. "It's why I was surprised you could. No one can typically see spirits except for children and even then, they have to believe in that spirit to be able to see them," Jack explained. "The way you reacted to my name told me that you've never heard of me before and you're certainly not children – at least you don't look like you're children to me. Honestly, everything I know of human and spirit interactions and relationships tells me that you shouldn't be able to see me, let alone interact with me," Jack said, not bothering to hide his bewilderment at the situation.

Most of the teenagers in front of him looked as confused by his words as Jack was about, well, everything. "Wait," someone said slowly, as though just realising something. It took Jack only a moment to realise it was one of the twins, "so if you can't die and you have all these powers, does that mean you're a god?" the male twin asked, eyes narrowed at Jack.

"Yeah, and if you are a god, why are you bothering with all this nonsense about spirits? Are you trying to confuse us?" the other twin asked, her facial expression morphing into an identical version of her brother's.

"Cuz if you are, you're doing a really good job of it!" the male twin informed Jack. His sister just nodded alongside him.

Though Jack managed not to facepalm, it seemed as though Hiccup didn't bother resisting that urge. "Ah, no, I'm not a god," Jack told the male twin, a little amused that they thought he was a god rather than a spirit. "What god would you think I even was? I don't exactly look like a god," Jack said, gesturing to himself. He did see Snotlout nodding in agreement with his words and made a silent deal with himself that if he weren't captured or run off by these teenagers, that he would get some kind of revenge against the broad teenager.

"You could be Lord Frosti or Lord Jokul," the male twin suggested, looking like he was on the verge of catching Jack out in some kind of lie.

"The Frost Giants?" Jack asked, nose crinkling slightly. The twins nodded while Hiccup looked as though he really wanted to interrupt this conversation. "Do I look like a frost giant to you?" Jack asked before cutting off any potential response. "Besides, I'm not _that_ old and I have a bigger bag of tricks than the those two brothers," Jack said, waving a hand dismissively at the twins before they could say anything else.

"Tuff, leave it. He's obviously not a god," Hiccup ordered before the male twin – who Jack now knew was Tuffnut – could ignore Jack's dismissal. "No offense," Hiccup said quickly to Jack, looking slightly apologetic for what he said.

"None taken," Jack assured him.

"So do you live near Berk?" Fishlegs asked, looking far less fearful of Jack now that the spirit had denied he was any kind of god. "How come we've never seen you there before?"

Jack frowned at him. "I don't think I've ever heard of a place or country called Berk before. Why would you think I live there?" he asked curiously.

"Well," Fishlegs said, looking a little nervous, especially since his friends were looking at him with as much curiousity as Jack was, "you said you are a winter spirit, right?" Jack nodded, still unsure where this was going. "It's just, Berk gets a lot of snow. For nine months of the year, we have constant snow, including our devastating winter. The other three months are either clear days or it rains and hails. I just figured that since there aren't many islands we know of in the Archipelago that gets as much snow as we do, you might live on Berk to make things easier for yourself. But we've grown up on Berk and so have all of our families and no one's ever mentioned seeing you or hearing stories about someone like you," Fishlegs explained, cheeks burning warmly as he flushed furiously.

Jack's confusion cleared up at the same time as the others. "Oh, well I guess I can see why you'd think that but, like I said before, I've never heard of a Berk," Jack told him kindly. "Do you guys really get snow nine months of the year?" he asked. The only places he knew of that had snow that often were Antarctica and the Arctic Circle and he would've definitely noticed a group of islands and dragons near either one of those during his 300 years of being the Spirit of Winter.

"Yeah," Hiccup confirmed, giving Jack the first real suspicious look Jack had seen on his face. "As a winter spirit, you would know that, right?" he asked. The question seemed to get Astrid's suspicions back up and the way she shifted slightly to ready herself for an attack seemed to get Snotlout's attention, causing him and his dragon to up the intensity of their glaring.

Jack shrugged. "Honestly, not really," Jack told him. "Mother Nature and the wind are usually the ones who tell me where I absolutely have to go and what kind of winter-related weather certain places are supposed to get before my season starts. Anywhere else I visit and any other winter systems I put into effect are of my own choosing. And, again, I've never heard of Berk. Can't exactly control the amount of snow a place I've never heard of gets, can I?" Jack asked pointedly.

Hiccup gave Jack a half-apologetic look but neither Astrid nor Snotlout mimicked their leader, not that Jack truly expected them to. "So if you've never heard of Berk, I'm gonna assume you've never been to or heard of the Archipelago either. Am I right?" Astrid asked, her hand twitching as though she was going to reach around and grab her battle-axe at the drop of a hat.

"No, I can't say I have," Jack told her after a couple of moments of wracking his brain. He'd visited a lot of places in 300 years, even some places he probably shouldn't have but he couldn't think of any place with a name that was even similar to either Berk or the Archipelago.

"So why are you here?" Astrid asked immediately, her suspicion never letting up as her blue eyes searched Jack's face and body language for any hint he was deceiving them.

"Well, that's the million-dollar question of the day, isn't it?" Jack asked, earning six confused looks in return, as though something he'd just said didn't make any sense to any of them. "I was sent here by another spirit, Father Time, to complete a task for him. Of course, the old codger didn't give me any details or instructions regarding the task he wants me to complete and I'm pretty much stuck here until I've done it," Jack told them. He heard Baby Tooth reprimand him quietly for what he called Father Time but Jack dismissed it. He had every right to call the ancient spirit an old codger considering what he'd done to Jack in the last hour alone.

"You have no idea what you're supposed to be doing out here?" Hiccup asked, sounding incredulous.

"Not a clue," Jack told him cheerily. "I imagine I'll either get a hint somewhere along the line or this'll play out however it plays out and eventually I'll get around to doing whatever Father Time wants me to do and he'll take me back home," Jack said, sounding far more casual about the whole thing than he actually felt.

"So what were you planning on doing?" Astrid asked, still sounding distrustful of Jack.

Jack heard Baby Tooth's grumblings aimed towards Astrid but he managed to keep himself from laughing out loud at her antics. She was as protective of him as she was of Tooth and she certainly wasn't afraid to tell someone off – no matter who or how powerful they were – if they acted in a way towards Jack that Baby Tooth disproved of. Jack had a sneaking suspicion that it was only because of the dragons that Baby Tooth wasn't out here, waving her fist at Astrid and scolding her within an inch of her life. Jack shrugged a shoulder at Astrid before he said, "honestly, I didn't have much of a plan," he admitted. "I'd really only started processing what had happened to me when you lot raced past me," he told them.

"You weren't there long enough to make a plan?" Fishlegs asked and Jack nodded.

"I probably only turned up maybe two minutes before you guys flew past me," he told the chubby teenager. "I probably would've ended up following my instincts and travelling, trying to find what Father Time wanted me to do," he said with another shrug. "That actually might be my plan once this conversation is over," he added thoughtfully. He could feel Baby Tooth's apprehensive look but he knew the small tooth fairy would go along with him until either of them could come up with a better idea.

"But how will you survive doing that?" Hiccup asked, looking mildly concerned about Jack's possible plans. "You don't know the area or what kinds of dangers are out there," he said. Toothless cooed in agreement while Astrid gave Hiccup a look that Jack couldn't quite work out. It looked almost like she was surprised, not surprised, and disapproving of what the brunette was saying.

"I'll manage," Jack told him unconcernedly. Both Ruff and Tuff seemed to be giving him approving looks while Fishlegs, Hiccup, and – to Jack's surprise – most of the dragons looked like they'd be finding pieces of him throughout the archipelago. It wasn't exactly a comforting look. "I've survived this long doing things far stupider than flying around a completely unknown area before," Jack said cheerily. "Now that I know dragons are a thing that exist, I know to avoid them and honestly, I can't think of anything that might prove to be more of a threat to me than dragons," he said when he saw that his words had no positive effect on Hiccup, Fishlegs, or the dragons. Jack was mildly perplexed that all of them seemed that concerned about a stranger who they'd known for barely fifteen minutes.

Jack's statement about the dragons seemed to earn him more confused looks from everyone but the Spirit of Winter saw Hiccup actually shake himself, as though getting rid of whatever he was thinking as a result. "Do you have anyone here who can help you?" Hiccup asked, seemingly stuck on the idea of Jack going about finding the task he needed to complete alone.

Jack hesitated for a moment as he thought of Baby Tooth before he answered. "No," he told him. "Anyone who could help me is back home," he said, mentally apologising to the little fairy in his hood and barely holding back a twitch when he heard Baby Tooth's displeased and upset chirp. He mentally swore to himself that he would apologise to her the moment he could. "I know how to look after myself. I'll be fine," Jack said, feeling the need to try and soothe those in front of him who seemed upset by his situation, no matter how bizarre he found it that strangers were upset for him.

A look crossed Hiccup's face that had Astrid's eyes blazing with fury, even if she said nothing. Jack almost felt like he should warn Hiccup that whatever he was about to say was likely going to get him severely hurt, if not killed, by the blonde on his right but then he saw Hiccup's eyes flick to Astrid and knew that the brunette understood what he was risking. "Why don't you come to Berk with us?" Hiccup offered and Jack was not ashamed to admit that his jaw dropped. "We might be able to help you figure out what it is you're supposed to be doing. It can't have been a coincidence that you were dropped where you were just in time for us to stumble across you," Hiccup pointed out, ignoring the annoyed snarl that passed through Astrid's lips.

"We can't take him back to Berk!" Snotlout protested. "What if he attacks the village? What if this is all just some sort of trap? He could be playing you!" Snotlout cried while Astrid nodded alongside his words.

"I can't believe I'm actually going to say this but I agree with Snotlout," the blonde said, scrunching her nose as though her words left a bad taste in her mouth. Snotlout looked torn between being smug and offended by her words. "We don't know him, Hiccup," Astrid said, stressing the point. "The last time we brought a stranger back to Berk, Heather tried to steal from us and betray us," she reminded him.

"And Heather turned out to have a very good reason for doing so," Hiccup reminded her. "She was only trying to save her family and I know you would've done much the same thing as her if it were your mother and father being held hostage," Hiccup said, raising a knowing brow when she opened her mouth as if to protest. "And it's not like I'm planning on letting him have free reign over the village. At least one of us will be with him at all times, just in case," Hiccup told her. "He'll stay in one of our houses at night and be accompanied everywhere by one of us with no exceptions," he said firmly, looking between his dragon riders and Jack, who looked thoroughly unsurprised and unphased by the ground rules Hiccup was putting into place.

"This is going to end so badly," Astrid said, sounding resigned as she backed down. Snotlout looked like he wanted to continue arguing but a sharp look from Hiccup had him scowling at the ground while muttering highly unflattering things about Hiccup that the brunette just ignored.

Hiccup turned to face Jack. "Do you want to come back with us to Berk? You'll be safe there and we will do our best to try and help you figure out what you're supposed to be doing here," Hiccup said, making the offer official.

Jack hesitated. He couldn't help it. Here were six strangers with five dragons who were offering – or at least no longer verbally protesting – him a place to stay for the foreseeable future _and_ help in trying to find out what Father Time wants him to do in this time and they were doing this because they seemed to be genuinely concerned for him. Jack had no clue what to do in this moment. He could accept the offer, be as safe as possible for a little while and try to puzzle out what task he was supposed to accomplish without worrying about watching his back as much as he would have to on his own. On the other hand, these were complete strangers. He had no idea if this was all a highly convincing act designed to lull him into a false sense of security so they could capture him. It wasn't every day you came across a lost winter spirit, after all. But then again, maybe they were truly genuine but by going with them, Jack might not complete the job Father Time assigned him, leading to him and Baby Tooth being stuck here forever.

A soft chirp next to his ear brought Jack out of his thoughts and he shifted his head slightly, letting Baby Tooth know he heard her. Several more expressive and half-understood chirps later told Jack what his companion was thinking. With her trust far less jaded than Jack's but wariness as high as his, Baby Tooth had a bit more of a level head when it came to whether they should trust someone or not and it seemed like his partner was willing to place hers and Jack's safety in the hands of those in front of them. A barely heard questioning hum was the only way Jack could ask if she was sure and Baby Tooth answered it with a positive chirp. Jack sighed silently. Even if he couldn't outright trust the people in front of him, he did trust Baby Tooth's judge of character and opinion so if she reckoned they could trust the dragon riders than Jack was willing to listen to her.

"Okay," Jack finally said with a nod. "I'll go to Berk with you so long as it's definitely okay," he said, unable to stop himself from making sure. He didn't want to cause any trouble for anyone while he was here.

"It's okay," Hiccup told him. "My dad's the chief of Berk and I'll explain everything to him, assuming he can see you," he assured Jack, even as he looked utterly shocked that he had to say that.

Jack jolted, having not even considered the fact that he might not be visible to anyone else in Hiccup's village. He found himself torn between hoping they wouldn't be able to see him since it would mean less people were suspicious of him and so that the dragon riders wouldn't have to repeat his story and justify why he was in their home but then again, he also wasn't looking forward to possibly having to dodge an entire village full of people when he walked through it if he had to for the foreseeable future. He felt something feather-light brush against the back of his neck and relaxed at Baby Tooth's comforting touch.

"Alright," Jack agreed, inhaling deeply. "I'll go with you to Berk."

Hiccup flashed him a grin. "Good," he said as he nodded to the dragon riders. "We were nearly back at Berk before we found you. Shouldn't take us more than an hour of flying to get home," he said, climbing into Toothless' saddle. Jack heard a faint click and assumed Hiccup's prosthetic leg had just clicked into whatever it was supposed to on the saddle. The other dragon riders mimicked Hiccup and mounted their dragons with practised ease. "Ready?" Hiccup asked, getting resounding confirmations from the other teenagers that they were.

Hiccup's eyes met Jack's and the winter spirit released the breath he'd been holding. "Ready," he said with a nod.

Hiccup looked satisfied by that and gestured for the dragon riders to start taking off, leaving Toothless and Hiccup to be the last to do so. Jack blocked his eyes with his hand as sand was sent flying from the dragons' wings propelling them into the air. When he felt the wind brush up against his cheek without sand in it, Jack knew that it was time for him to follow. He glanced up at the sky and noted the five dragons were waiting for him to catch up just above the ocean. Reaching up to pat Baby Tooth, Jack gripped his staff and asked the wind to carry him upwards. The wind listened and in no time, Jack was joining the humans and dragons. His arrival seemed to be their cue to start for Berk since Toothless quickly headed for the front of the pack as soon as Jack was off the beach.

As Jack followed the five dragons, he felt something settle in his gut and was highly surprised when he realised what it was. "You know what, Baby Tooth?" Jack said, trusting the sound of the wind rushing past everyone's ears to block out his voice. A small questioning chirp answered him. "I think going with them was the right thing to do," Jack said as he felt the sense of right spread from his gut to the rest of him. Baby Tooth's smug but agreeing chirp at his observation had Jack grinning for the first time since Pitch ambushed them.

* * *

Hiccup had been right in his estimation for how long it would take for them to get to Berk since it was barely an hour into the flight that Snotlout gave a whoop of excitement as a massive island which seemed to be made of mostly large cliffs and hills that sprawled with trees came into view. They'd been travelling in a 'V' shaped formation with Jack flying behind Toothless and Jack drifted slightly to his left so he could get his first look at the place the dragon riders and dragons with him called home. The Winter Spirit took in the small section of island that had wooden buildings built on multiple levels of stony clearings that were connected in places with wooden bridges, including a bridge that connected the village to the rest of the island, the large arena off to the side of the village, the massive, wooden bowls situated on poles filled with fish or wood, the boats tied to the dock that were carved from wood and had stylised carvings of dragons and warriors on them, and the people milling in the streets who were dressed in furs and armour. As he took all of that in, Jack felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. Father Time hadn't just sent him a couple of hundred years in the past, he'd sent him at least a thousand years in the past.

"I don't care how ancient and powerful he is," Jack whispered to Baby Tooth as they followed Toothless into a descent, "when we get home, I'm throwing a snowball at Father Time's face," he told her. The fact that she didn't immediately protest against that idea told Jack that Baby Tooth was contemplating getting her own revenge against the ancient spirit. Toothiana and the other Guardians wouldn't even exist in this time, not for a few hundred more years so Jack and Baby Tooth were truly on their own.

As the dragons and their humans came into land, Jack could feel a wave of excitement and happiness roll through the village at the sight of them. He landed lightly behind Toothless, who'd taken a couple of bounding steps before coming to a stop, while the other dragons landed lightly nearby. Hiccup was quick to dismount Toothless and gesture for Jack to stand closer to him while Astrid and the other riders were quick to join Hiccup. Jack was a little surprised but did as he was silently asked and joined Hiccup and the others. The dragons milled around them though they called out various greetings to the dozens of dragons who either accompanied a villager, were lazing on a rooftop or sturdy, wooden perch, or were enjoying the fish in some of the large bowls. Jack could see multiple dragons who looked like Stormfly, Meatlug, Hookfang, and Barf and Belch and there were tiny dragons that looked no bigger than a large housecat as well as a few other breeds of dragons but he couldn't see any dragon who looked like Toothless. It made him wonder whether Toothless' kind weren't sociable or perhaps nocturnal, though that didn't explain Toothless if either were the case.

The group had barely joined back up together when a cheerful but rough voice called out to Hiccup. "Ya took yer time gettin' back here," an older man with a prosthetic hook for his left arm and a wooden peg for his right leg accused good-naturedly as he hobbled towards the group. Jack took in the blonde, braided moustache that was longer on the right side than it was the left, the leather-wrapped, beefy right arm, short fur vest, and long vertical horns on his helmet. When the man opened his mouth again, Jack was certain he spotted a small rock in the place of one of his teeth and he was suddenly very thankful that Tooth wasn't with them to witness it. Just as he made a mental note to warn Baby Tooth, the stranger spotted him. "Who's that?" he asked bluntly, eyes narrowing as he took in Jack's blue hoodie, brown pants bound to his calves with leather straps, and bare feet.

"This is Jack," Hiccup said, gesturing to the spirit in question. The man went to ask something else but Hiccup cut him off. "I'll tell you everything while I tell my dad. Do you know where he is, Gobber?" Hiccup asked and the use of the man's name got his attention off of Jack, who was starting to feel a little nervous with the amount of attention he was getting since Gobber's question had brought the villagers' attention to them and they noticed him for the first time. It almost made Jack wish they couldn't see him at all.

"Yeah, that's what I was gonna tell ya before I spotted him," Gobber said, nodding to Jack. The suspicion hadn't abated but his expression did soften slightly as he spoke to Hiccup. "Yer dad's given us all orders to have ya go straight to him once we spotted you lot turnin' up. I think he's still plannin' on trainin' ya up to take over his position," Gobber told Hiccup, who sighed.

"Thanks for the warning, Gobber," Hiccup said, sounding like he was half thinking of getting back onto Toothless and flying far, far away from Berk. "Where is he now?" Hiccup asked. From the slightly pitying and understanding looks he was getting from Fishlegs and Astrid, Jack wasn't the only one who heard the exhaustion in Hiccup's voice.

"He's in the Great Hall with Gothi and a few of the other villagers," Gobber told him. "Somethin' about makin' sure we'd still be alright if we get a nasty storm now that devastatin' winter is over," Gobber explained as the group started moving forward, following the large blonde and Hiccup.

"Does Gothi think we're in danger of that?" Hiccup asked, a worried crease forming between his brows.

Fishlegs must've seen Jack's confused expression since he dropped back so he was walking next to the winter spirit. "Devastating winter cleared a couple of weeks ago," he explained. "Berk's been having clear days for most of those couple of weeks and more often than not, it means that we're in for a snowstorm or something," he told Jack.

"That makes sense but I thought you said that you guys get snow for most of the year," Jack said. "Wouldn't that mean you'd be prepared for a snowstorm?" he asked.

Fishlegs shrugged a shoulder. "Depends on how bad devastating winter was for us," he told him. "This year it was pretty average but everyone was stuck inside their homes or the Great Hall for nearly three weeks while the worst of it happened. That ate up a lot of our supplies," Fishlegs divulged. "In the good weather we've had since devastating winter passed, our hunters and fishers will have gone out every day to restock our food supplies. This meeting is probably being held to see whether Gothi thinks we'll get a severe snowstorm and whether the hunters and fishers think they'll have caught enough food for us and the dragons if we wind up being stuck in our homes for a more than a couple of days," he told Jack.

"Oh," Jack said simply. "That makes sense," he added before something that Fishlegs and Hiccup had both said sunk in. "Wait, who's Gothi and how will she be able to tell you what kind of weather you'll get?" he asked, looking at Fishlegs with more confusion than he'd felt before. He had never met a human who was able to accurately predict weather without the use of modern technology before.

Even as a winter spirit, Jack couldn't be certain how much snow an area would get until he'd created and released a storm system. Mother Nature would only give him the minimum or maximum amount of snow certain places were to get and Jack would only release a system once he felt like he'd put enough energy into it. There was some sort of instinct that he had as a winter spirit that told him when he'd put enough energy into the system he was creating and only once he'd released it would Jack know how much snow it would create. Sometimes those systems would become monsters – like the blizzard of '68 that Bunny had held a grudge against him for – that would leave Jack with immense feelings of guilt and grief for the damage they caused and lives they took but he had no real control over those kinds of systems. So the fact that Fishlegs was here saying they had someone who could predict whether the village would be in for some weather or not certainly had Jack's interest piqued.

"Gothi is the village's Elder, Healer, and Advisor primarily but she has a lot of other roles on the island," Fishlegs told him. "She's mute but I don't know if that's by choice or because she actually can't speak. She's a little creepy and she's older than anyone else in the village, which why she's our only elder. She's able to use runes to tell the future, which is how she knows about the weather," he explained. With every word he said, Jack felt his eyebrows rise further up his forehead in disbelief. Sure, there were spirits who had similar abilities but this Gothi wasn't being spoken about like she was one.

"Okay," Jack decided to say rather than express his disbelief but something in his voice obviously tipped Fishlegs off to what was going through his head.

"You'll see what I mean when you meet her," Fishlegs said confidently. "Just don't eat or drink anything she's made unless you've gone to her with a medical problem," he warned and Jack was a little amused and worried when Fishlegs' skin turned a little green.

"Thanks for the tip," Jack said, eyeing the chubby teenager with a worried look for a moment before he decided to pay attention to his surroundings once more when all Fishlegs did was nod as he seemed to fight down the bad memories brought up by the mention of Gothi's food.

Now that he was paying attention, Jack could see the wary, suspicious, and intrigued looks he was getting from the villagers they passed as the wound their way through the streets of Berk. He figured the intrigued looks were because of his appearance since his clothing definitely stood out while his hair colour was definitely unusual, even in his time. He didn't know anyone and hadn't seen anyone who looked as young as he did with hair as white as snow and he wasn't surprised to see the same thing here. The wariness and suspicion were something Jack had expected – assuming the villagers could see him – but he had to admit, after spending the last nearly hour and a half copping it from Astrid, Snotlout, and the twins, Jack was a little sick of it. He understood why the villagers were cautious and distrustful of him but still.

"Ah, sounds like he's still here," Gobber said as they came to a stop at the bottom of a hill that had a massive building that seemed to be carved into the side of one of the many small mountains on Berk. Several stone steps led up to the front doors that had a large carved statue of a dragon next to each massive door that was carved with what Jack thought were Celtic knots.

Jack was going to ask how he knew when he heard the sound of multiple, loud voices drifting from the Great Hall. He thought he could hear five different voices but he couldn't be certain since they sounded fairly muffled from where he was. Hiccup's sigh got his attention and he turned to find the brunette looking like he was about to walk into a fight he didn't want any part of. "Let's get this over and done with," Hiccup said unenthusiastically before he led the group up the stairs with Toothless cooing encouragingly beside him.

Jack felt trepidation settle into him with every step he took up those stairs. The wind ruffled his hair in both encouragement and comfort and Jack had to smile at that. Even though it didn't know him, it seemed as though the wind did care for him as much as it had done at the start of his time as Jack Frost and that helped with Jack's nerves. Although, as much as both the wind and Baby Tooth were doing to help soothe him, Jack still tightened his grip on his staff. Hiccup may have invited him here but it was up to his father whether Jack would be allowed to stay on Berk without being thrown into some sort of prison. If he gave the order to put Jack in a cell or dungeon, Jack had no plans to go quietly. He was not a fan of being trapped somewhere for any amount of time.

When they reached the doors of the Great Hall, Hiccup turned to Jack. "Don't take offence to anything he says or the tone of voice he might use. My dad is…" Hiccup trailed off as he tried to think of the right word to use before apparently giving up. "He might take some getting used to and he has to have the village first in mind all the time. He's not going to be happy I invited you here but he's usually pretty reasonable. Just keep that in mind, please," Hiccup asked.

"Sure," Jack agreed, doing his best to not sure any sort of nervousness or fear he felt. From the knowing look in Hiccup's and Astrid's eyes, Jack failed to keep all of it at bay.

Gobber didn't even wait for Hiccup's say-so before he entered the hall. "Stoick, yer son's back!" he announced at a volume that had Jack wince and Baby Tooth let out an irritated chirp that got the attention of at least Toothless and Stormfly. Jack was quick to shush Baby Tooth as Gobber continued speaking. "And he's brought someone with him," he told the group of six people standing in front of a raised deck that Jack assumed was used to make announcements from.

"Thanks for letting me handle that, Gobber," Hiccup said sarcastically and under his breath as they continued to cross the room.

Jack's attention was brought from taking in the dozens of tables and chairs, pillars wider than Jack had ever seen that were carved with the same decorative patterns as the doors, the large fire pit that was almost the size of one of the houses Jack had seen in the village, as well as the decorative shields on the walls as the group came to a stop. Jack was standing directly in between Gobber and Hiccup, though he hadn't been given a choice in the matter since Gobber had grabbed him and pulled him to the front before Jack could say anything. Hiccup had scowled at Gobber before Jack could do anything and the winter spirit was certain he saw a flicker of apology in Gobber's eyes but it didn't linger. Scolding himself for not paying attention to his surroundings enough to notice someone grabbing for him, Jack shifted minutely closer to Hiccup, glancing at Gobber with some wariness.

"Who?" a large man, larger than Gobber, demanded and Jack's attention was dragged from Gobber to who he had to assume was Hiccup's father. Dressed in forest green tunic with a thick, brown belt tied around his waist that had armour attached the bottom part of it in what looked like a mimicry of dragon scales, leather wraps around his wrists that were studded with dull, metal spikes, and a thick, brown fur coat, the Chief of Berk struck an imposing figure. The hard green eyes that were narrowed in Jack's direction and large horns on his helmet added to the image. The four men and women that were around the chief also eyed Jack with varying looks of curiousity and suspicion while the shortest woman – who Jack had to assume was Gothi just from her age – regarded Jack with a look that was pure interest.

"Dad, this is Jack Frost," Hiccup said, sounding like he was forcing his voice to stay calm and level. "Jack, this is my father, Stoick the Vast. He's the chief of Berk," Hiccup said, glancing at Jack. "With him are Gothi, our village elder, Spitelout, Snotlout's father and one of my dad's advisors, Bucket, Mulch, and Thurid, Astrid's mother," Hiccup said, finishing off the introductions.

"Hiccup," Stoick's voice was low and filled with warning, "why have you brought a complete stranger to Berk? Especially one as questionable and strange as this one?" Stoick asked bluntly and Jack now understood Hiccup's warning a little more clearly. Gothi still hadn't taken her ice-blue eyes off of him and Jack was also understanding Fishlegs' warning a little more as well.

Baby Tooth's offended chirp sounded next to Jack's ear just as Hiccup started explaining what had happened a couple of hours earlier that led to them meeting Jack. It took every ounce of self-control he had to not grin at Baby Tooth's chirped muttering though he did shift his shoulder to get her to quieten since the dragons with them had definitely heard her and were showing Jack's shoulder far too much interest for his liking. There was the softest brush of Baby Tooth's feathers against his neck that was her way of saying she'd received the message before Jack turned his attention back to the conversation that was still ongoing.

"- was sent here to help complete a task for a fellow spirit. We – _I,_ " Hiccup corrected himself at the protesting noises that came from his team with a roll of his eyes, "I invited him to stay here on Berk while he tries to figure out what he's supposed to do here," Hiccup finished saying.

"Hiccup, do you understand how reckless that was?" Stoick asked, voice raising slightly. "A winter spirit? I thought you were past the age where you believed in that sort of nonsense, Hiccup! How do you know he won't turn on Berk? How do you know he doesn't have an army waiting for a signal from him to invade us?" Stoick demanded and Jack felt himself wince in place of Hiccup. He couldn't remember being lectured like Hiccup was by any sort of parental figure and it made him a little uncomfortable to be witnessing it, especially since he was the reason for the lecture.

"Yes, he's a winter spirit and I know, Dad. I thought of all of that before I brought him here. Toothless and I both think he's being honest and none of the other dragons reacted negatively to Jack," Hiccup defended himself. "We didn't see any signs of an army following us or waiting for us near Berk," he added. Toothless warbled in agreement and Jack was mildly surprised to see Stoick's eyes shift from his son to the black dragon before going back to Hiccup.

"This was reckless, Hiccup," Stoick said firmly. "I know you're against the idea of starting your training to become chief now but this decision of yours could've jeopardised our people! It still might!" Stoick informed him bluntly. " _This_ is why you need to start this training! You can't be doing this sort of thing when you're the chief!"

To Hiccup's credit, he didn't look uncomfortable or embarrassed and Jack had to wonder how many times this kind of thing has happened to the brunette. "This decision literally has nothing to do with your insistence that I need to become chief as soon as possible," Hiccup said, voice still level, something Jack admired since he knew he wouldn't have reacted as calmly. "Jack needs help and we can offer him it. He's already agreed to have at least one of us with him all the time and he knows he'll have stay at one of our houses at night," Hiccup told his father. "He's not going to be out of the sight of us or our dragons and he definitely can't fly quicker than any of the dragons and certainly not Toothless so even if he does try to take off and betray us, he won't get far," Hiccup explained.

Stoick still didn't look impressed with his son but Jack saw the resignation in his eyes and knew Hiccup had managed to defend his decision well enough that Stoick wasn't going to argue against it further. "If he betrays the village, it's on you, son," Stoick said gravely, causing Hiccup to flinch minutely. A throat being cleared got Stoick's attention and everyone's eyes fell on Gobber, who was looking at something Gothi was doing. "What is it?" Stoick asked, a touch irritably as he took a couple of steps towards Gothi.

"I think Gothi has somethin' to tell ya, Chief," Gobber said cheerfully. That piqued everyone's attention further and Jack peered around Stoick's vast form in time to see Gothi tracing something on the ground with the butt of her staff. From the distance, Jack couldn't tell what it was and – from the looks on everyone's faces except Gobber's – neither could anyone else.

"What does she have to say?" Stoick asked Gobber, who was busy leaning over the words as he apparently read them.

"She says ya should trust him," Gobber read dutifully. Jack's jaw wasn't the only one to drop at that revelation; even Gobber's did when he realised what he said. "Eh? Let me double check that," Gobber said before he read it over again. "Yeah, that's what it says, Chief. The Old Bat reckons ya should trust the stranger," Gobber said before yelping when Gothi's staff came down on the top of his head, causing the metal of his helmet to clank loudly.

Gothi glared at Gobber before she turned her eyes to Jack then Stoick and nodded. "Are you sure, Gothi?" Stoick asked, earning himself a glare on par with the one Gobber had just received and Stoick's hands went up in a calming gesture. "I just wanted to check," he muttered before turning so he could address Jack himself and sighed lightly. "You're welcome to stay on Berk but understand you will be watched at all times. You won't so much as take a breath without one of them," Stoick jabbed a meaty finger towards the dragon riders, "or Gobber keeping an eye on you and you'll be expected to help out where you can. Everyone on this island earns their keep here," he informed him. "The moment you give me any indication that you're so much as thinking of betraying Berk, you will be imprisoned," he said and Jack fully believed him. Just from the tone of his voice, Jack knew that no one – not even Hiccup – would be able to change Stoick's mind if the chief decided Jack belonged behind bars.

Jack would admit that he was scared in that moment. This was a man who was remarkably similar in height and build to North but was a lot more imposing than his friend was and far more dangerous. North could be scary in a fight, especially if he was defending his friends or children from something or someone who was a threat to them but Stoick gave off the impression that he was rarely as jovial as North usually was. Because of that, all Jack could do was nod in acceptance of Stoick's words and conditions. Not that he wouldn't have agreed anyway if Stoick was less intense since they were pretty much the same conditions Hiccup had given him on the island but this time it seemed more like Jack's only options were to agree or end up in a jail cell. He didn't think Stoick would've just let him fly off the island without an argument.

"Good," Stoick grunted. "I need to get back to the conversation we'd been having before you arrived but I'll head to the house afterwards where I expect both you and Jack," Stoick said, glancing at both his son and Jack, "to be waiting. There are still things I need to know about you," he told them, this time looking at just Jack.

"I guess we'll see you there then," Hiccup said, glancing between Jack and his father. Jack offered up no arguments to Stoick's demand. He was just thankful that they'd soon be out of the eyes of the villagers since Jack was starting to feel more than uncomfortable with the stares he was getting.

"I shouldn't be long," Stoick told his son, the irritation and seriousness in his tone replaced with what Jack would almost call affection.

Hiccup nodded and took the words as a dismissal because he was quick to turn around, gesture for Jack to follow them then lead his group out of the Great Hall, leaving Gobber to stay with Stoick and the others so he could be part of the conversation they'd been having. Toothless and the dragons brought up the rear of the group, with Toothless pushing his way forward so he was between Jack and Hiccup, the latter of who started scratching Toothless behind one of the flaps on his head.

"Well," Astrid said once they were back in the sunshine and Jack glanced over to her once his eyes had adjusted to the brightness, "if you both survive Stoick, I guess we'll see you later today," she said. A smirk curled on her lips when Hiccup rolled his eyes at her words.

"We'll be fine and yes, we'll see you later," Hiccup told her. "I'm sure you'll see us in the air later today. We might as well do a patrol around the island this afternoon and make sure everything is okay," Hiccup said, earning two nods and three groans of annoyance, the latter of which he ignored.

"See you then," Astrid said before she glanced at Jack. There wasn't any other interaction between the two since she turned away and headed down the stairs with Stormfly flying above her but Jack figured the fact that her gaze wasn't as murderous as it had been now that he had the chief's official permission to stay was a win.

Fishlegs gave Jack a smile and small wave as he and Meatlug headed after Astrid and Stormfly while Snotlout made an 'I'm watching you' gesture at Jack before he climbed into the saddle on Hookfang. The red and black dragon growled but took off, heading for the village and Jack had to wonder if the move had been some kind of display of power or something. The twins mimicked Snotlout and mounted their dragons but they only called out goodbyes before they took off, flying over the Great Hall and away from the village.

Hiccup watched them suspiciously as they left before he shook his head. "Hopefully, whatever they're gonna do won't affect the village too badly," he muttered before he turned to Jack. "Our house is this way," he told him, gesturing off to his right. "I'm sorry about my dad," he apologised as he and Toothless led Jack down the stairs and off to the right.

Jack shrugged a shoulder. "Don't worry about it. As first meetings go, it was probably one of the friendlier ones I've had," Jack told him, earning a concerned look from the brunette. "Besides, I don't blame him for being suspicious of me. I'd probably be suspicious of me if I were in charge of a whole village and some stranger comes by claiming to be a winter spirit," he added with another shrug.

Hiccup seemed relieved that Jack wasn't offended and Jack wondered if there were some lingering doubts about Jack's claims that he wasn't a god but he elected against asking. If Hiccup believed that, it wasn't like arguing with him right now was going to make him change his mind. "He's always been wary of strangers being allowed onto Berk," Hiccup told him. "We were recently betrayed by someone who we'd trusted for years and that's affected his trust a lot," he explained.

"Yeah, that would probably affect me pretty badly as well. I don't trust easily as it is," Jack said, grimacing as he imagined one of his friends turning into a traitor. It would've probably messed him up significantly. "Anyway, why do you think the twins are gonna do something that's going to affect the village?" Jack asked, deciding to switch topics.

Hiccup let out a low chuckle that was mimicked by Toothless and Jack felt his eyebrows just about fly off his face at the sound of a dragon laughing. "You don't know the twins," Hiccup told him. "They've recently committed their lives to worshipping Loki, the God of Mischief, but even before then they were always up to something and that something usually ended up with an explosion near or in the village," Hiccup explained.

Jack felt a spark of appreciation flare for the twins. Explosions were always fun to create and watch and it sounded like these two were pranksters, something he could relate to. He'd had to keep himself entertained somehow over the 300 years he'd been Jack Frost and the fact that it helped him get some sort of revenge against the spirits who were cruel to him rather than simply dismissive was an added bonus. "Sounds like you have more than a few stories about the pair of them," Jack said, unashamedly interested and cause Hiccup to snort.

"The stories I have about the stupid things the twins have done would fill multiple books," Hiccup said with a laugh just as what Jack assumed was Hiccup's and Stoick's home came into view.

It was a large house – by the standards Jack had seen of the homes in the village – and it certainly looked like it was owned by the chief of the village. There were more elaborate carvings around on the front door and there seemed to be some sort of wooden awning constructed on the side of the house where a massive dragon laid, enjoying the respite from the sun. It was mostly light green but had muddled red on its face, the single horn on its nose, the two long, thin horns above its eyes, along the edge of its wings and down the wing bones, as well as along the top of its tail. It had thick plates around its neck that was the same length as its short, thick body. It had stubby legs that were tucked up underneath it and when it woke up, Jack almost laughed at the perpetually unimpressed look on its face as it regarded Toothless and Hiccup before its yellow eyes fell onto Jack.

"Hey, Skullcrusher," Hiccup greeted once they were near the house. "This is Jack. He's got Dad's permission to stay on Berk for a while," Hiccup told him, scratching the dragon on its forehead. The dragon huffed lightly before it apparently decided to go back to sleep, seemingly uncaring of Jack's presence now. "He's a pretty laidback dragon but only if he knows there's no danger around," Hiccup explained as he led Jack and Toothless to the front of the house and opened the thick, wooden door. "Do you want something to drink? We have some water or there's mead somewhere," Hiccup offered but Jack shook his head.

"I'm good, thank you," the spirit said before taking a seat at the table when Hiccup gestured for him to do so. Jack watched as Hiccup grabbed a large, sturdy basket of fish and tipped ten or so on the floor. The moment the first fish hit the ground, Toothless pounced on it and devoured it without so much as chewing it. Hiccup shook his head fondly at the black dragon as he took a seat opposite Jack at the table and Jack took the opportunity to ask something he'd been wanting to since he first saw the dragons and their riders. "How in Manny's name did you guys manage to discover and train dragons, if you don't mind me asking?"

Hiccup laughed, both at Jack's question and the blatant interest the white-haired teenager was showing. "It's a long story but I think I can get through the condensed version before Dad gets home," Hiccup told him. Jack felt Baby Tooth peek out from behind his neck as she avidly joined him in listening to Hiccup. "Five years ago, dragons had started raiding our village as they had been doing for years and I was in…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to each and every single one of you who commented on the first chapter for this story! I really appreciated them so much!! I hope you enjoy the next chapter and I can't wait to see your thoughts on it!


	3. Chapter 3

Stoick could hear laughter coming from inside his house, despite the fact that the door was closed tightly. He felt his heart swell at the sound of his son's enjoyment before he remembered that his son was in his home with someone who was a complete stranger. Diverting only slightly to lay a hand on Skullcrusher's neck as he greeted his dragon, Stoick entered his home to find Hiccup and Jack sitting at the dining table while Toothless watched in interest from where he lay on the floor. He wasn't sure what the pair had been laughing at since they fell quiet when they heard the door open but Stoick didn't bother asking about it.

"Hey, Dad," Hiccup greeted as he slid his chair back, causing it to scrape noisily against the floor. "Did you want something to drink?" he asked, eyeing Stoick with a touch of wariness. It was plainly obvious to the chief that his son was expecting him to either be in a bad mood – as often happened after meetings such as the one he'd just been in – or to still be mad at him over the whole Jack situation. From the way Jack looked, it appeared to Stoick that the white-haired boy was expecting Stoick to kick him out of his home or worse.

"No, I'm alright, son," Stoick said, nodding to his boy before he took his seat in between the two teenagers, with Hiccup retaking his seat. A slightly uncomfortable silence fell over the table before Stoick decided to break it. "Your name is Jack Frost?" he asked, deciding to start with a simple question.

"Yes," Jack replied, eyes flicking to Hiccup before he focused back on Stoick.

"And you claim to be a winter spirit?" Stoick asked, continuing with his questioning.

Jack's eyebrows furrowed slightly before his expression smoothed out, too quick for Stoick to understand why he'd frowned in the first place. "I _am_ the Spirit of Winter. It's as much a claim as your title of Berk's chief is," Jack informed him, a touch of irritation in his voice.

Stoick had to admire the boy's bravery to speak to him that way and a glance at his son had him almost breaking his passive mask. It looked as though Hiccup thought there was a chance he was going to witness Jack's demise right in front of him. Stoick turned his attention back to Jack before he did end up laughing at his son. "Can you prove that claim?" Stoick asked simply and Jack nodded.

"Easily," Jack said with a touch of cockiness as he placed the hand not clutching his staff to the table in front of them and closed his eyes for a moment. To both Hiccup and Stoick's shock and amazement, frost started creeping from where Jack's palm lay on the wooden surface, spreading itself out in a beautiful, almost-floral like pattern. Jack opened his eyes and watched the frost as it moved outwards, away from him and towards the pair sitting at the table with him, who were watching the spreading frost avidly. Even Toothless had sat up and was watching what Jack was doing curiously. Jack finally put a stop to it when the frost started covering Stoick's hand, causing the large Viking to gasp slightly at the frigid temperature. "See? Winter Spirit," Jack said, more than a touch of smugness in his voice.

"How'd you do that?" Hiccup asked, still looking at the frost on the table before his father could say anything.

Jack shrugged a shoulder. "It's something I've always been able to do. It was the first ability of mine I uncovered when I became Jack Frost, actually," he said, a small, nostalgic smile on his face that was tinted with sadness. "It took a long time for me to control it so that not everything I touched would become covered in frost," he added with a laugh.

"'When you became Jack Frost'?" Stoick repeated and saw Jack flinch slightly as a grief-filled shadow flicked across his face. "What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"I was born human then when I was around 17, something happened and I became Jack Frost, the Spirit of Winter," Jack told him.

There was some stiffness in his voice and Stoick knew that while the boy was being honest, there was something he was holding back however the grief in his blue eyes made Stoick think twice about pushing for a more detailed answer for the moment. "So you're a spirit?" Stoick decided to ask and Jack nodded, a flash of relief crossing his eyes. "How old are you?"

"I stopped physically aging at about 17," Jack said, "and I've spent a little over 300 years as a spirit," he told him, earning shocked looks from both Stoick and Hiccup, "so, maybe 320?" he finally said, nose crinkling slightly as he gave the number, as though he didn't like only being able to give them a ballpark figure.

"You don't know your exact age?" Stoick asked, finding that a little suspicious. Everyone on Berk knew how old they were, so long as their date of birth was marked. At the very least, everyone knew how many years they'd managed to stay alive.

Jack shook his head. "I can't remember the year I became Jack Frost and I can't remember how old I really was when I became who I am now. I had to ask friends to guess how old I looked so I had some idea," Jack told him.

"You can't remember?" Stoick asked, repeating his words with a touch of disbelief. It was, after all, one of the easiest excuses to give to cop out of giving an honest answer.

Again, Jack shook his head. "When I became a spirit, something happened to my memories. I didn't even know I'd been human before I was a spirit until a year ago and I only managed to uncover a small handful of memories of my time as a human," Jack explained, voice shaking a little as he tried to keep his emotions in check. He felt Baby Tooth press against the back of his neck and felt himself relax a little. "My age and the year weren't part of those memories," he told them. He glanced up to see the pity in Hiccup's eyes and the twinkle of something in Stoick's that betrayed the older man's hard exterior but Jack didn't let them try and act on them. "I'm not talking about that anymore," he said, a touch more harshly than he meant to. "What else do you want to know?" he asked, directing the question at Stoick.

The red-headed Viking gave Jack an assessing look before he seemed to nod to himself. "Why are you here?" he asked, allowing the subject to change.

"Some friends of mine and I were attacked by a spirit who we thought we wouldn't be fighting for a long time. We'd battled against him the previous year and beat him severely enough that his power shouldn't have allowed him to fight us after only a year," Jack explained. "While battling him, we found out another spirit had joined forces with him, which was why he had enough strength to attack us. This spirit has the ability to transport people or spirits instantly to any point he wants and he almost managed to do so with one of my friends. I got her out of his trap but ended up caught in one myself. He sent me here with instructions that he needed me to do a job for him but he neglected to give me any details so I have no actual idea what I'm supposed to be doing," Jack told him, sounding just as cross with Father Time as he had when he was explaining all of this to Hiccup and the others earlier.

"Why did you accept Hiccup's offer to come to Berk if you don't know what you're supposed to be doing for this spirit?" Stoick asked. "Your task could be somewhere other than Berk," he pointed out.

Jack nodded at his words. "I'd considered that," he admitted, "but a friend always told me that if I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do, I should listen to my gut. That's what I did and it told me that I should stay with Hiccup and his friends," Jack explained.

Stoick didn't react to Jack's reasoning. After all, many Vikings would've died earlier in their lives if they hadn't listened to their instincts, Stoick included. "So you're stuck here until you've completed this task that you know nothing about?" Stoick asked, wanting to be certain.

"Pretty much," Jack said with a sigh. "I figure that either something will give me a hint as to what I'm supposed to be doing here or I'll end up doing it without knowing and Father Time will eventually get off his butt and collect me," Jack told them, shrugging a shoulder nonchalantly.

Stoick didn't let on that he was little miffed that Jack had answered the question he'd been about to ask but he decided to move onto the next one. "Why are you dressed in such strange garments? And where are your shoes?" Stoick asked. While it wasn't snowing right now, Berk was still plenty cold and Stoick couldn't figure out how the spirit found it comfortable to be walking around without better protection against the weather.

"These clothes are pretty standard where I'm from and I've never worn shoes," Jack said. "I tried but I don't like them. They feel too constrictive and it's not like I need the protection anyways. I'm the Spirit of Winter. It's not like I can get cold," he said with a small smirk.

Stoick refused to show how uncomfortable it made him to think of someone – winter spirit or not – walking around barefoot outside. "What are your other abilities?" Stoick asked, deciding to leave the topic of footwear alone. He didn't think he'd get extremely far with Jack anyway.

"Well, I can create frost, as you saw," Jack said, eyes glazed slightly as he tried to recall the things he could do. "I can use ice lightning during a fight, I can freeze things solid, I can create frost animals, I can create snowstorms, snow days, blizzards, and anything in between. I have control over anything snow or ice related and I can create something I call 'fun flakes', which are special snowflakes infused with my power that when they land on people, it can help them find joy and to have some fun," Jack said, a smile gracing his lips as he remembered using them against Cupcake and the other children for the first time. "Basically, anything to do with winter, I can do or control it. Outside of my winter-related abilities, I can summon the wind and ride it, I'm fast and agile, and I can speak with the leaves," he added, deciding against holding anything back. He didn't think Stoick would be his biggest fan if he revealed a power or ability he hadn't told him about and, knowing his luck, he would slip and reveal something he hadn't told them about.

"You can speak to leaves?" Hiccup asked, stealing the question right out of his father's mouth.

Jack nodded before he frowned. "I'm not really sure how to explain it," he admitted. "It's not like I hear their voices in my mind or anything. It's more like what they're telling me is imprinted in my mind?" He didn't sound awfully certain as he spoke but he continued. "The leaves can warn me if there's danger coming or tell me if I'm safe. They help bring me messages and the wind can carry them to me if there's something urgent I need to know. If I need to, I can ask them to fall from their trees so I can use them to distract an enemy before they go back to their tree and reattach themselves. Sometimes I give the Spirit of Autumn a hand and ask them to change colours when autumn is coming to an end and winter's ready to move in. Same for when winter is coming to an end and spring is about to begin. I can ask the leaves to change their colours again," Jack explained.

This time, Stoick couldn't hide his astonishment as well as he would've liked. Hiccup didn't even bother trying and Toothless seemed to be regarding Jack in a new light. Jack decided to give them a few moments to process what he'd just said. It was a pretty unbelievable ability and he wasn't entirely positive that the Guardians even knew about it yet. Jamie had been just as gob-smacked when Jack had explained it to him months ago on one of his visits to his first believer. He took the opportunity to pretend as though he was scratching his neck to check on Baby Tooth and was happy to find that she was still okay and alert. He scratched her head lightly and earned himself a pleased coo from the little fairy. Toothless perked up at the sound and his bright green eyes were focused directly on the hand Jack had behind his head. The winter spirit was starting to get a little annoyed with how intuitive this particular dragon was.

"Do you have any more powers?" Stoick asked and Jack was a little amused to hear a small amount of trepidation in his voice.

Jack thought for a moment but couldn't think of any forgotten about powers. "No, I think that's it," he said with a nod.

There was a small flicker of relief on Stoick's face but when Stoick shifted to lean back in his seat, it was gone. There were a few moments of silence, during which Hiccup looked increasingly worried, before he spoke. "Very well," Stoick said. "I can't think of anything else I wish to ask you at this moment but there is something I decided while speaking with Gobber and the others," Stoick said, tone serious. "You will sleep here at nights rather than alternating between the homes of the dragon riders," Stoick informed Jack. "We don't have a spare bedroom so you have the choice of sleeping in Hiccup's room on the floor or in here with me," Stoick said, gesturing to the room around them.

Jack took in what he figured would be called a lounge room in the future. It looked comfortable. There was an uncomfortable looking chair that somewhat resembled a lazy-chair made of wood, a large wooden bed with a thin mattress-like object, worn sheets and a lumpy pillow, as well as a rug made out of some kind of fur that Jack couldn't figure out what kind of animal it came from and a large fire pit in the middle of the room that looked as though it would warm the whole house, which explained the lack of blankets on the bed. He hadn't yet seen Hiccup's room so he didn't know what it was like but he didn't think it would be worse than the lounge room/Stoick's bedroom or else Hiccup wouldn't sleep in it.

"Thank you," Jack said, deciding he would just make his choice that night.

Stoick didn't look like he'd been truly expecting for Jack to give him an answer, he just nodded at him before he focused on Hiccup. "Spitelout and Thurid have reported that we've got enough meat rations for the village to last everyone a week should we be snowed in. Bucket and Mulch have said that the fish supply won't last the dragons that long. I need you and your riders to split between helping drive game out of the forest and fishing with Astrid's A team and help our hunters and fishermen with their gathering," Stoick instructed Hiccup.

"Guess we know what we're doing this afternoon, heh, bud?" Hiccup said, scratching Toothless, who cooed happily.

Stoick nodded at his son before he turned back to Jack. "You'll be helping since you can fly," Stoick told him.

Jack nodded. "I'll help whoever's going to hunt. Don't think freezing the ocean will do you guys any good," he said with a small smirk. The fact that getting close enough to a large body of water without freezing it first was something that had terrified him for the entirety of his life as the Spirit of Winter – well before he'd known the reason for it – was something he wasn't going to mention.

"I'll have the twins and Astrid take Gustav, Spitelout and Not-Silent Sven. Barf and Belch can help Stormfly, Kingstail, and Fanghook scare up some fish and protect Bucket and Mulch's boat. They'll also be able to help carry any excess fish," Hiccup said. "That'll leave me, Jack and Toothless with Gothi – if she can spare the time –, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and their dragons. That should be enough for us. We don't want to burn the forest down or anything," he said dryly before Stoick could comment on the lack of riders with Hiccup.

Any arguments Stoick had disappeared at that. "Very well," Stoick said with a nod instead. "Jack stays with you or Fishlegs at all times, however," Stoick told him, glancing at Jack pointedly.

Jack almost asked why the other dragon riders weren't listed as his possible babysitters for the afternoon but decided he should probably ask Hiccup that so it didn't sound like he was questioning Stoick's orders. "Sure," he agreed easily instead.

Stoick waited for a few moments, likely seeing if either of them had anything else to say before he got out of his chair. "Right," he said with a sigh. "I'll find Spitelout, Gothi, Bucket, Mulch, and Gustav and have them meet you at the stables," Stoick told Hiccup. "If Gothi is too busy, I'll send word with one of the others," Stoick said.

"No worries," Hiccup said as he and Jack mimicked Stoick's actions and stood from the table.

Stoick eyed Jack. "I'll also spread the word that the stranger is allowed to stay on Berk for the time being," Stoick added. "If anyone gives you any grief over it, tell them to take it up with me," Stoick ordered them.

"I will," Hiccup assured him, though Jack had a niggling feeling that Hiccup was more likely to deal with it himself than worry his father over that kind of problem.

Stoick nodded as if accepting his answer but there was something in the nod that told Jack he had been right in his earlier assumption. "I'll go gather the others," Stoick repeated himself before heading for the door. "I should be able to see you both at dinner time," he said, "providing there's no emergency on the island to stop me from doing so," he added with a small sigh.

"Sure, Dad," Hiccup said. "We'll make sure to grab you something from the Great Hall even if you're not here," he told him as Stoick made it to the door. With a quick smile to his son, Stoick left the house, shutting the door quietly behind him. The moment the door softly thudded against its frame; Hiccup let out a relieved sigh. "Well, that could've been way worse," he said with a cheerful tone. Toothless trilled in agreement while Jack raised an eyebrow. Hiccup elected to ignore that expression as he nudged Toothless out of the way. "Come on. We'd better go find the other riders and get started," Hiccup said, gesturing for Jack to follow him as he and Toothless followed Stoick.

Jack flipped his staff so he was carrying it slung casually over his shoulder. "Sounds like fun," Jack said with a smirk that had Hiccup suddenly grateful he'd decided to send the twins with Astrid. He didn't think the village would survive Jack and the two of them realising they were kindred spirits so soon.

* * *

"So what kind of animals do you normally hunt out here?" Jack asked as he flew beside Hiccup and Toothless as they led the group of dragon riders who were hunting game out of the forest. There were also a group of twenty Vikings moving on foot to trap, kill, and carry any game the dragon riders, dragons, and Jack chased their way.

"Boars, mostly," Hiccup answered, speaking slightly louder than normal to be heard over the wind. "Sometimes there's a few sheep who've escaped their yards and couldn't be found, as well as some large birds like turkeys but we try not to hunt those if we can. There's been cases of Vikings who have eaten the turkeys getting sick from them, no matter how well they're cooked," Hiccup told him.

"You guys just live off boar and sheep?" Jack asked, eyebrows creased. He may not eat a lot of food – he didn't strictly need to eat as a spirit but he did enjoy eating food on the rare occasions he found some that was good – but he did know that humans usually had access to more than two types of meat.

"No, we have chickens and fish as well but we don't have to hunt the chickens and the second group of dragon riders will be getting the fish so we don't have to worry about that," Hiccup told him.

"So what's the plan?" Jack asked as he scanned the forests below them.

"The hunters on foot will send Fishlegs when they're ready for us to start chasing game towards them," Hiccup explained. "Once we see him and Meatlug, Snotlout and Hookfang will take up position on my left flank and Fishlegs and Meatlug will do the same on my right. We'll use the dragons to scare game towards the hunters. If you can, I need you to help make sure none of the game escapes our net," Hiccup told him as he and Toothless came to a hover just at the edge of another clearing.

Jack came to a stop next to them while Snotlout had Hookfang land in the clearing behind them. "Yeah, I think I can do that," Jack told him, shifting slightly in mid-air as the wind gently buffeted him. He felt Baby Tooth peek out from behind his neck so she could take in the new sights but thankfully, she did it on the side Toothless wasn't. "Why did Snotlout have Hookfang land?" Jack asked, his curiousity getting the better of him.

"Hookfang can't stay in the one spot like Toothless can. His wingspan is too big and he ends up either moving from where he's supposed to or he disturbs the game we're trying to hunt," Hiccup explained. "Plus, he tires easily if he tries so it's better for him to land," he added with a shrug. "Snotlout can also use the opportunity to check for game while he's on the ground."

Jack looked over his shoulder to where Snotlout was currently lounged on Hookfang's saddle, a picture of relaxation complete with his legs resting between Hookfang's horns, one crossed over the other. "Sure," Jack said, tone laced with sarcasm.

Hiccup looked over his shoulder to see what Jack had and rolled his eyes. "Well, no one's ever accused Snotlout of taking the initiative outside of a fight," Hiccup muttered, causing Jack to snort with amusement.

There was silence for a few moments as they waited before Hiccup seemed to perk up with an idea. "Hey, can you find game using your leaf-speak?" he asked, turning slightly to look at Jack.

"I don't know. I've never asked the leaves back home about animal life nearby. I've never needed to," Jack told him. "But it's worth a shot, I suppose," he added with a shrug. "Be back in a minute," was all he said before he had the wind drop him towards the trees, chuckling at Hiccup's half-panicked gasp at the rate he dropped.

Gripping his staff a little tighter, Jack directed the wind to help him land on a tree branch that was more or less halfway up the tree so he could speak with all of the leaves without any difficulties. Once he was settled on the branch he'd chosen, Jack reached out to touch the leaves closest to him. "Hello," Jack said, brushing his fingers through the leaves. He grinned when he felt their confusion but elation at being spoken too. They didn't say anything directly to him but he could feel the warmth they felt. "My name is Jack Frost and I'm not from around here, if you couldn't tell," he said, introducing himself. There was a thrill of excitement that went through Jack, an echo of what the leaves around him were feeling.

There was an almost overwhelming sense of joy and welcome from the leaves and Jack's grin grew wider. Jack got the sense that there wasn't a spirit or human in this time who spoke to the leaves like Jack could and that created a dull feeling of sadness in him. The leaves in his own time loved being spoken too. They enjoyed helping Jack with what he needed and Jack enjoyed helping them in any way he could. Sometimes it wasn't much; finding a wood sprite to help heal a sick tree but sometimes Jack ended up helping put a stop to a wildfire and in return, he got complete safety and someone who enjoyed speaking with him.

"I have a favour to ask of you," Jack said, continuing to run his fingers through the bunches of leaves within his reach. The leaves impressed on him their willingness to help and eagerness for him to name his request. "Could you tell me where there are some boars hiding around here? I'm trying to help the people who are looking after me find more food so they can stock up in case of bad weather," Jack told them.

The wind ruffled through his hair as the leaves grew excited at the prospect of helping Jack. He chuckled at the enthusiasm the leaves felt and at how similar they were to the ones in his time. He had no idea why the leaves were always happy to help him where they could – especially with how little he ultimately could help them – but they always were and it seemed like that hadn't changed despite the fact that Jack didn't belong in this time. But suddenly, the excitement he felt from the leaves turned back into confusion that took a moment for Jack to figure out the cause for.

"Oh, you're wondering how you can tell me when you've found something?" Jack asked and felt the leaves' agreement. "Just ask the wind to bring you to me when you've found something or pass the message along your fellows. I'll hear it," Jack promised them. The confusion that still lingered amongst the leaves vanished and the excitement ramped up once more. "Will you help me, please?" Jack asked. The entire tree seemed to shake with the leaves' enthusiastic agreement and Jack chuckled at them. "Thank you. Just remember to ask the wind for help reaching me and let me know if I can do anything to help you in return," Jack said, moving so he was in a crouch now rather than the relaxed seated position he had been in.

There was a warmth pressed against his mind, a show of gratitude from his new friends, before Jack asked for the wind to take him back up to where Hiccup and Toothless were still hovering. It seemed as though he was just in time since he could see Fishlegs and Meatlug approaching them. "Did they agree?" Hiccup's question drew Jack's attention back to him.

"Yeah, they'll let me know if they spot anything for us to flush out," Jack told him. There was a flicker of disbelief that flashed across Hiccup's face but he didn't say anything. Jack didn't bother to ask what it was about. It had taken Jamie several weeks _and_ multiple demonstrations for him to start believing that Jack could talk to them.

Hiccup nodded just as Fishlegs and Snotlout joined them. "Snotlout, you and Hookfang take my left. Fishlegs, you and Meatlug are on my right. Jack will be moving between us, making sure no animals are missed," Hiccup instructed. "There's no need to be flashy," Hiccup said, looking pointedly at Snotlout. "We want to move the game towards the hunters, not burn them to a crisp before they make it there," he said, eyes not leaving Snotlout until the teenager sighed loudly.

"Fine," the black-haired teen grumbled.

Hiccup gave the two dragon riders signals and they maneuvered so they were several feet away from Hiccup, Toothless, Jack. Once the two pairs were in position, Hiccup looked at Jack, who gave him a small nod that Hiccup returned. "Let's go!" he ordered, something that was echoed by Toothless' roar.

Jack stayed where he was as the three dragons dived, roaring as they went to scare any game out of their hiding places. Jack's sharp eyes darted everywhere, piercing through the trees' foliage to look for any dark blurs that could be a boar or two. As the dragons moved through the forest, Jack followed above them, keeping an eye out. He could hear dried twigs and leaves being trampled, and occasionally saw glimpses of something running away from the dragons and knew the three teams had managed to scare up some game. Cursing reached Jack's ears from his left and he headed that way, ducking into the trees to find Snotlout and Hookfang trying to double back to get a boar that had split off from the small herd they'd found.

"I got it," Jack told Snotlout as he zipped past the teenager and his dragon. He heard Snotlout curse again but paid him no attention as he used his staff to shoot a bolt of ice lightning at the boar, letting it hit the ground in front of the animal. The move worked how Jack wanted it to; the boar spooked and turned so it was running in the direction of its herd where it would be safe.

"I had it," Snotlout grumbled as he and Hookfang continued following the herd and Jack rolled his eyes.

"And you would've lost the others if you'd tried going after that one. Getting a little bit of help isn't the end of the world," Jack told him, earning more grumbles from the teenager. He ignored him in favour of paying attention to the leaves the wind was bringing towards him. He didn't notice Snotlout looking at him like he'd lost his mind for a moment before Hookfang got bored of staying still and decided to follow the boars they'd found, earning a yelp from his rider for his troubles. Reaching out for the leaves, Jack let the wind move the leaves towards his hands. "What have you guys found?" Jack asked as the leaves danced across his hand. There was an excited sense of urgency from the leaves that was accompanied by a gentle push from the wind and Jack laughed as his new friends worked together to get him moving. "Okay, okay! Let's go!" Jack chuckled, allowing the wind to push him in the direction it and the leaves wanted him to go.

It didn't take Jack long to find out what the leaves and wind had found for him. A large herd of fifteen boars were hiding under some thick brush. Using the wind to help him, Jack sent a wave of icy wind at the boars, as well as some ice bolts to scare them in the direction he wanted them in, towards where he'd seen Fishlegs and Meatlug. The boars burst out of the brush with wild squeals that echoed amongst the trees and Jack zipped after them, making sure they stayed on the path he wanted them on. It didn't take him long to have his herd join up with the few that Fishlegs had found and he pulled back to where the large teenager and his dragon were puttering along behind the boars.

"Good job, Jack!" Fishlegs said, taking in the new boars with an almost awed expression.

"Thanks, Fishlegs," Jack said, smiling as his cheeks flushed slightly. Genuine praise – especially from strangers – was something Jack still wasn't used to.

Before either of them could say anything, there was a shout followed by an annoyed roar that Jack suspected was from Toothless. Both he and Fishlegs exchanged confused looks and Jack had been about to ask the wind to take him towards the sounds when a new one could be heard, increasing in volume rapidly. "Snotlout! Snotlout! Oi, oi, oi!" came the shout just before Snotlout and Hookfang burst through the trees near Jack, Fishlegs, and Meatlug.

Just before the pair reached the trio, Hookfang roared once more and seemingly burst into flames. They were so close to Jack when they did that, that Jack felt the heat from the flames wash over him and he panicked, telling the wind to take him straight up. He rocketed out of the forest, travelling several metres above the tallest tree below him and struggled to bring his breathing and adrenaline levels back to where they were supposed to be. He could hear Baby Tooth's concerned squeaking and for a moment, he was afraid that she would come out of hiding, which didn't help him in his endeavour to calm down.

"I'm okay, BT," Jack said, raising his left hand to pat her and keep her in his hood. He could tell she wanted to come out and actually check on him but she seemed to accept his words and the pat for the moment.

Jack could still feel the heat from Hookfang and checked his right hand, noting that it was slightly pinker than his skin normally was. On a normal human, it probably wouldn't register as more than a first-degree sunburn but to Jack, it felt like he'd been in front of a fire for hours. His skin felt slightly tighter than it should've and it was prickling uncomfortably. The wind could feel his distress and injuries and brought down cooler air from – Jack assumed – the snow-covered mountains that were on the tallest peak of Berk. It helped immensely and soon Jack could feel his skin itching as it healed, which had him let out a sigh of relief.

"Thanks, Wind," Jack said, earning himself a gentle hair ruffle from his friend. "Think we should head back and see what's happening now?" he asked both the wind and Baby Tooth. One affirmative chirp and gentle nudge towards the trees was his answer. Heading back down into the trees, Jack found himself faced with the scene of Hiccup and Toothless simultaneously scolding Snotlout and Hookfang while Fishlegs and Meatlug were nowhere to be seen, which Jack assumed to mean they'd been tasked with moving the boars they had found towards the hunters still waiting for them.

* * *

"You could've caused the boars we'd found to scatter!" Hiccup lectured. "We would've had to stay out here for Thor knows how long to get them back! And all because you had to show off?" Hiccup asked, voice an interesting mix of disbelief and resignation, like this wasn't new behaviour.

"I was helping! Did you see how much faster those boars ran when they saw me and Hookfang coming for them? Much faster than they were for slow-legs!" Snotlout boasted.

"We don't need them to move fast, Snotlout," Hiccup snapped. "We need them to head for the hunters and traps. How do you think our hunters would be able to handle a couple dozen boars coming for them in a mad panic?" he asked, glaring at Snotlout.

All Snotlout could do was shrug in response. Though his expression was one of uncaring and unremorseful, Jack could see a flash of guilt in his eyes. "Where's Fishlegs?" Jack asked, deciding to stop being a silent bystander.

Hiccup's eyes flicked over to him. "Keeping an eye on the herd we've put together," he told Jack.

"Okay, well I'm gonna go help him do that," Jack said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder and in the direction he assumed Fishlegs and Meatlug were. "You two feel free to keep doing whatever you're doing," Jack said before he had the wind take him towards where the leaves said Fishlegs and Meatlug were.

Hiccup opened his mouth as if to say something but Jack had already disappeared into the trees. Sighing, he turned to Snotlout and levelled him with look. "You pull any stunts like that again and you can go back to the village," Hiccup warned him before he pulled Toothless around so they could follow Jack and Fishlegs. He heard Snotlout mutter something but the sound of something large flapping their wings told him that Hookfang was following him.

* * *

It didn't take the four of them long to catch up to the three other members of their hunting team and when they did so, they found Jack working to help keep the boars moving in the direction they needed to go by zipping over the top of the group and using ice bolts to keep any from straying. Fishlegs and Meatlug were the main driving force keeping the herd moving, with Meatlug growling and roaring at any boars moving slower than the others. It was interesting to watch Jack in action. He didn't move as one would expect a human who could fly to do so; instead, he used the trees as springboards, leaping from one branch to another, carried effortlessly by the wind to the branch he wanted to get to, using his staff to release an ice bolt if he needed to. His aim was always perfect, the shot hitting just in front and to the outside of the boar he was aiming for, scaring it back towards its fellows.

"Good job, guys!" Hiccup called, relieved that it seemed like none of the boars the hunting team had found had managed to escape them.

Fishlegs beamed at him. "Jack's been the one to keep them in line. I would've lost half of them if I was doing this with just Meatlug," he told him before immediately placing a hand on Meatlug's neck. "Not because of any fault of her own. It's hard for any dragon to keep all of them in line, isn't it, girl?" Fishlegs cooed at her and received an affectionate growl in return from his dragon.

Hiccup watched as Jack released another bolt of ice lightning to stop a boar from breaking off from the herd. "Good to know we won't be out here until dark trying to get enough boars into the traps to make it worth our time out here," Hiccup said, side-eying Snotlout, who didn't seem to notice it as he and Hookfang joined Jack in keeping the boars in line. Thankfully, it didn't seem like the rambunctious teenager was going to try anything stupid again any time soon. "Alright," Hiccup said, bringing Toothless around to the other side of the herd of boars. "Let's get these boars where we need them then," he said, beyond happy that he and Toothless weren't going to have to give up their afternoon flight around the island to chase boars through the forest, thanks to Jack's and Fishlegs' efforts.

* * *

"So what now?" Jack asked as he helped Hiccup cut off the boar carcasses that were draped over Toothless' side.

The hunt had ended with the hunters dispatching all the boars the group had managed to herd their way; with a grand total of 26 boars being their final count. There'd been a couple of pregnant sows in the traps that the hunters had let go, as well as three boars deemed too old for their meat to be any good for the village. The carcasses had been placed in nets for the dragons to carry in their claws and two had been strapped to each dragons' saddle, leaving only four for the hunters to bring back themselves. The dragons, their riders, and Jack had all left before the hunters did but they'd been assured the men and women would be fine without an escort since only eight of them were needed to carry the carcasses they had left, leaving the other twelve to defend the group against any possible threats.

Jack had gone to offer to stay with them and provide air support but then he remembered Stoick's warning about staying with one of the dragon riders at all times and decided against voicing his offer. He didn't want to make one of the dragons and their rider stay with him while they were burdened with the boars they were carrying for however long it took for the hunters to make their way back to the village. Besides, from what Hiccup had told him while they were waiting for Stoick in the house, it wasn't like the Vikings couldn't defend themselves against threats. Up until a few years ago, they'd regularly been fighting against dragons. Jack didn't think there would be many threats in the forest more dangerous than a dragon.

"Once we've taken these to where they need to go, I was going to take Toothless on a flight around the island," Hiccup told him. "Might check to see if Astrid and her group are coming in for the day or not," he said. "You're welcome to come with us if you'd like? I don't know what Fishlegs or Snotlout have planned for the rest of the day, if you wanted to hang with one of them instead," he added, looking over at Jack as a small group of villagers came forward to help them haul the carcasses into the building where they'd be sectioned and prepared as needed.

"I think I'll go with you," Jack told him, flinching at the idea of spending time with Snotlout and Hookfang without someone else to run interference. Though they hadn't interacted much while gathering the boars, it was obvious the raven-haired teenager still didn't like or trust him. As for Fishlegs, while he was a lot nicer than anyone else – bar Hiccup – had been to him that day, Jack didn't feel comfortable enough to stay with him by himself just yet.

"No problems," Hiccup said, not bothering to question his decision. "Can you help me with the last one? Once I've gotten the blood cleaned off Toothless and his saddle, we'll get going," he told Jack.

"Sure," Jack said, grabbing the end of the pole that went between the boar's tied front and back legs that Hiccup hadn't grabbed and crouching so he could rest it on his shoulder.

Hiccup mimicked his action on the front end of the boar and after a quick countdown from the Viking, they both stood up, lifting the boar between the two of them. "This way," Hiccup said, panting slightly under the boar's weight, before he started walking forward with Jack dutifully following him. Toothless was too busy watching them to offer any help.

They entered a nearby building and placed the carcass alongside the others. A chorus of "thanks, Hiccup!" followed the pair out of the of the building. Hiccup had turned around to give them a wave before they made it back to Toothless. "Alright, bud. Let's get you cleaned up," Hiccup said, eyeing the boar blood that had smeared all over Toothless' saddle and scales. Toothless cooed in agreement, looking at the blood disdainfully.

It didn't take them long to pull up a bucket full of water from a nearby well and get Toothless and the saddle gear cleaned to both Hiccup's and the dragon's liking. "You ready to go?" Hiccup asked Jack as he climbed into Toothless' saddle.

"More than ready," Jack said, excited about the prospect of flying with nothing to hold him back and nothing else to do while he was flying.

Hiccup's smirk told him he knew exactly what was going through Jack's mind. "Then what are you waiting for?" Hiccup asked, smirk turning into a grin. "Let's go!"

The moment Hiccup said those words, Toothless rocketed for the sky, nearly bowling Jack over with the strong gusts of wind his wings created. If it hadn't been for the fact that Jack had been expecting it and had the wind create a barrier between him and Toothless, he would've been knocked over. By the time the dust had cleared and Jack could see again, Toothless and Hiccup were almost out of the village. "Are we going to really let them beat us?" Jack asked the wind, laughing when it tugged at him playfully. "Let's catch up to them!" Jack said, using his staff to summon the wind and propel himself upwards, ignoring the villagers' stunned looks.

Jack let out a whoop of joy as he rushed upwards through the sky, heading for Hiccup and Toothless, who had obviously slowed down so he could catch up with them. Baby Tooth was chirping with happiness as she sat tucked against his shoulder and neck, clinging to his hair, using the opportunity the flight gave her to come out of hiding for a few moments. Hiccup was laughing at Jack as he came to a hovering stop next to the pair. "Someone would think you never get to go flying," Hiccup teased.

Jack let out a laugh as he made sure Hiccup and Toothless were on his right so they couldn't see Baby Tooth on his left shoulder. "Usually when I'm flying, it's to get from country to country to bring snow and storms to them. I don't really get to fly without having a job to do at the end of the flight," Jack told him. "It's a nice change of pace," he added with a small smile as he took in the sight of Berk from this view.

From this height, Jack could see almost everything Berk had to offer. He couldn't see past the massive snow-covered mountains but he didn't mind since Hiccup had said they'd be doing a lap around the island so he soon would discover what was behind them. The larger part of the island – the part where the village didn't sit – was nothing but jagged edges, large cliff faces, massive amounts of trees that were only broken up by random clearings, beautiful rivers that ran with clear, clean-looking water and turned into waterfalls where the river end met a cliff, and stunning valleys and gorges and Jack loved it. Though there were plenty of places back in his own time that were just as beautiful, he didn't get to visit them as much he wanted, considering six months of the year he was working and he only had a few weeks – if that – total during the other six that were cold enough for him to enjoy as he travelled.

Hiccup let Jack take in sight of Berk from the air for a few moments. He'd grown up on Berk and had only recently discovered other islands in the Archipelago but he still found himself awed by the majesty that was his home island. So he couldn't begrudge Jack a few seconds to take in Berk. After those few seconds though, he did have to break Jack's attention away from the view. "Do you want to do the lap around the island first or go see if we can find Astrid and the others?" Hiccup asked.

Jack hummed in consideration. "Might as well go see if we can find your friends," Jack said. He didn't know how long a lap around the island would take, especially with Hiccup and Toothless showing him new things, and the others might need some help so he figured it was a good idea to check on them first. Besides, he'd be able to get the visit over the ocean out of the way and have the lap around the island to calm himself down from being as close to the water as he assumed he would have to be.

Hiccup nodded in agreement and gestured for Jack to follow him and Toothless. "They should be this way," he said, having Toothless fly out to the left and away from the village. "Bucket and Mulch usually fish out here," he added as justification for the direction he was taking them in.

"So how exactly do dragons help with hunting? Can they even get wet?" Jack asked as he flew alongside Hiccup and Toothless at a moderate speed.

"They can get wet," Hiccup told him. "A wet dragon can't light its flame, though, so we have to be careful if we have to get the dragons wet. We can't fly in stormy or rainy weather, especially not me and Toothless," Hiccup said with a chuckle as he gestured to his left foot and the metal that made up part of the saddle and tail prosthetic attached to Toothless. "But when a dragon that isn't a water dragon can't light its flame, its main defense is gone so they're left with whatever defenses they've got, which might only be their claws, teeth and tail," he explained. "A Deadly Nadder – the species Stormfly is –" Hiccup added when he saw the confused look on Jack's face, "can still use their tail spines to defend themselves. Toothless could use his tail to whip the legs out from under his enemies' feet if he needed to. So could a Monstrous Nightmare – Hookfang's species – or a Zippleback – that's Barf and Belch's species – but for a Gronckle – that's what Meatlug is – they'd be stuck with their teeth and claws," he told Jack.

"Okay, so if they can't use their fire if they get wet, how do they help with fishing?" Jack asked again.

"Well," Hiccup said, "Barf and Belch usually go underwater in this kind of situation. The twins don't care about being underwater either, which helps matters. Since Barf and Belch don't produce a flame as such, there's less risk of them being in danger of not being able to defend themselves since Barf produces flammable gas. Belch normally produces sparks to ignite it but he can't when he's wet. However, the gas can be ignited by another dragon like Stormfly so if they were attacked right now, they'd be able to defend themselves," Hiccup told him. "So Barf and Belch go underwater and scare up any fish they find. They herd them into the nets that Bucket and Mulch have put out and Astrid and the other dragon riders will act as defense for the ship and the others against water dragons and anyone trying to launch an attack on Berk," Hiccup said, finally answering Jack's question.

"Yeah, I'm guessing the fish wouldn't be happy about a two-headed dragon chasing them underwater," Jack said. Hiccup gave a chuckle as his answer while they continued flying out over the water. A small dark object surrounded by four smaller, dark objects appeared on the horizon in front of them and Jack gestured at it with his staff. "Is that them?" he asked.

Hiccup looked over to where Jack was pointing. "That's them," he confirmed, adjusting Toothless' tail flap so he'd fly in that direction. "Let's go see how they're going," he said. Toothless took his words to mean that he should speed up so he did and Jack had to call on the wind to help him keep pace with the black dragon and his rider.

It didn't take them long to reach the single ship and four visible dragons. Jack took in the new Deadly Nadder and two Monstrous Nightmares making constant loops around the ship. Stormfly and Astrid had been aiding their guard rotation but had broken away when the blonde had spotted Toothless, Hiccup, and Jack approaching them. "What's going on?" Astrid asked, looking worriedly between Hiccup and the direction Berk was in and suspiciously at Jack. Both Stormfly and Toothless cooed greetings to one another, seemingly oblivious to how their riders were acting.

"Nothing's going on," Hiccup told her, an admonishing tone in his voice. "We've finished hunting for game in the forests and I wanted to check in with your group to see what kind of progress you were making before I took Jack on a flight around the island," he said.

"Are you sure you should be showing him around the whole island?" Astrid asked, hissing her question as she glared at Jack.

"Yes," Hiccup told her. "Dad's given him the okay to stay on Berk and is issuing orders that anyone with any issues with that are to take it up with him," he informed Astrid, voice stern. That seemed to cause her to startle slightly and though the suspicion lessened, it didn't dissipate entirely. "How's everything going here?" Hiccup asked, forcing the subject to change back to why he and Jack were there.

Astrid looked mildly miffed about her concerns being ignored but an air of resignation settled around her as she sighed. "We're doing fine," she told him, barely flinching as the sound of surging water could be heard below them. Jack looked down to find Barf and Belch rising out of the water with heavy flaps of their water-laden wings. There were two shouts of excitement as the dragon helped the two Vikings aboard the ship haul in two large nets full of fish. "Bucket and Mulch reckon they can take on another two net-loads of fish before the weight is too much. They might push another two loads if Not-Silent Sven agrees to help me tow the boat in with our dragons," she reported. "How'd your hunt go?" she asked.

"We got a good haul, thanks to Jack's and Fishlegs' efforts. Snotlout caused some chaos with the hunt by showing off but we still wound up with 26 boars caught and culled," Hiccup told her. "Tell Bucket and Mulch that if they think the extra two nets worth of fish will be too much for their ship to leave it until tomorrow or the next day. I imagine we'll need to organise another two or three hunting and fishing trips before Dad's satisfied with the level of food we'll have in storage," he warned her.

Astrid didn't look surprised. "We'll probably have to organise another two or three extra fishing trips just to keep up the supplies for the dragons, in the case of a severe snowstorm," she said.

Hiccup nodded in agreement. "I'll talk to my father about getting additional fishing ships out once we've hunted enough game," he told her. There was another splash, smaller this time, and Jack watched as the fishermen threw the now empty nets back into the ocean. A few moments later, the smaller but broader of the two ship-bound Vikings waved to the twins and they gave a whoop of excitement as Barf and Belch dived back into the ocean. "We'll let you get back to it. Signal us if you run into any problems and we'll come back to you as quickly as we can," he told her.

"As if something will happen to us that we can't handle," Astrid said, the first smirk Jack seen from her on her lips.

"I don't doubt that for a minute," Hiccup said, a matching smirk on his face. "See you back at Berk," he told her, moving to have Toothless turn around so they could fly back towards the island.

"See you there," Astrid said, eyes flicking to Jack once before they found Hiccup's again. "Enjoy your flight," she said before she and Stormfly headed back to the other dragons guarding the ship.

"Well that went far better than I'd expected," Hiccup said. "She didn't try and attack or threaten you this time," he said cheerfully, looking over at Jack.

"I do like it when I'm not threatened or attacked by someone," Jack said with a solemn nod. "Are we heading for the island now?" he asked and Hiccup gave him a nod.

"Yeah, let's get started on your first official tour of Berk," Hiccup said, patting Toothless encouragingly on the top of his head. Toothless cooed happily as he led the way back to Berk. "We'll start the tour on this side of Berk and go around the entirety of the island's perimeter," he explained as they flew back towards the island. "We probably won't have enough daylight left for us to do a large tour of the whole island but we can explore the rest of the island on other flights," he told Jack, looking mildly apologetic as he did so.

"Sounds good to me," Jack told him. He didn't think there'd be enough daylight for them to do an in-depth tour of Berk so he hadn't been expecting one.

Hiccup seemed relieved at his words. "Great," Hiccup said. "Follow us then," Hiccup said before shooting a grin over his shoulder. "If you can keep up, that is," he added with a mischievous smirk before Toothless sped up, a roar being Jack's only warning to brace himself for the buffeting he got from the dragon doing so.

"Oh, it is on!" Jack laughed, calling upon the wind to propel him forward at greater speeds. "Hold on, Baby Tooth! This could get exciting!" he warned the little fairy in his hoodie. He could hear her excited and encouraging chirps in his ear before they were going at a speed fast enough to cut her off. Jack couldn't even hear the sound of his own laughter over the sound of the wind rushing over his ears as he and Baby Tooth used the wind to try and catch up with Toothless and Hiccup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the comments!! I truly love them all, they are my lifeblood so please keep them coming! Hope you all have an awesome week and I'll see you at the end of it with the next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

"I don't think," Jack said breathlessly as he landed beside Hiccup and Toothless, "that I've ever had the privilege of racing someone as fast as you before," he told Toothless, a wide grin on his face. He'd caught himself reaching out to pat the dragon on the head but stopped himself before he did. He didn't know if it would be alright for him to do so and he didn't want to lose an arm if it wasn't. "You're unbelievable!" Jack exclaimed, hoping his enthusiasm would distract Hiccup and Toothless from his aborted action, if they'd caught it in the first place.

Toothless preened at the praise and Hiccup looked beyond proud of him. "He's the fastest dragon in the Archipelago," Hiccup said, a touch of smugness in his voice. "We've not come across another species of dragon who could match him, let alone beat him," Hiccup told Jack, who was thoroughly unsurprised by that piece of information.

"I wish I could go that fast," Jack said wistfully. He felt the wind ruffle his hair and push against him slightly, and Jack knew if the wind had a physical body, it would be pouting at him right now. "The wind does its best to go as fast as it can with me but we've never managed to match Toothless' speed," Jack said with a small sigh.

There was contemplative look on Hiccup's face as he glanced between Jack and Toothless but Jack didn't notice, too busy trying to reassure his oldest friend that he wasn't upset with them about how fast they could go. Hiccup filed the thought of inviting Jack to go for a ride on Toothless so he could experience the kind of speed Toothless could manage away for another day before he got Jack's attention. "Let's go and get some food from the Great Hall before all of the Vikings who plan to eat and drink there tonight get there," Hiccup said, gesturing for Jack to follow him and Toothless.

"Yeah, sure thing," Jack said agreeably as he caught up to the pair and walked on Hiccup's other side. The village had lit the large torches and hoisted them up high so that the warm light reached as far as it could. It wasn't quite night yet so the other smaller lights and lamps weren't yet lit but Jack could see that the fireplaces in multiple homes were as they passed them by. The villagers who were still out on the streets all regarded Jack with the familiar looks that were a mixture of curiousity and suspicion as they passed the three of them by. To get his mind off the villagers, Jack decided to distract himself by asking Hiccup a question. "Are Astrid and the others back yet?" he asked.

Hiccup nodded as he continued to lead them up towards the Great Hall. "Yeah, Bucket and Mulch's fishing boat was back at the docks," he told Jack. He didn't seem surprised or offended that Jack hadn't noticed it as they flew into the village after their patrol lap. "I didn't see anyone on or near it so it'd be safe to assume they've been back long enough to unload the boat and store the fish where it needs to be," Hiccup told him.

"Probably a safe assumption to make," Jack said lightly, causing Hiccup to let out a soft, amused snort. "So the fish are for the dragons to eat?" Jack asked and Hiccup nodded.

"Mostly, yeah," the dragon rider told him. "It's the only meat they seem to enjoy eating," he said before Jack could ask him. "Even when they were attacking us before Toothless and I found each other, they were only stealing our livestock to feed their queen," he explained. "The dragons on Berk – and for the most part of the Archipelago, for that matter – prefer fish over chicken, boar, or yak," he told Jack.

Having heard the watered-down version of the fight between the Red Death and Hiccup and Toothless, Jack didn't question that part of Hiccup's answer. However, he did address something else. "'For the most part of the Archipelago'?" Jack repeated.

Hiccup shrugged a shoulder as he, Jack, and Toothless moved out of the way of a couple of villagers who hadn't seen them. Jack wound up not moving quickly enough – still not all that used to adults being able to see and touch him – and was accidentally shoulder-checked into Toothless' flank. Hiccup tried to grab Jack by the arm before he hit Toothless but he hadn't been quick enough to prevent the collision. "You okay?" he asked both the winter spirit and his dragon, waving the apology from the Viking who'd run into them off dismissively.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jack said, rubbing the part of his arm that took the brunt of his weight as Toothless rumbled his own assurances to Hiccup. "Sorry, Toothless," Jack immediately apologised to the dragon, earning himself an appreciative coo from Toothless and an approving look from Hiccup, the latter of which confused him. "Anyways," Jack said, clearly deciding to not question the look, "what was that about the Archipelago?" he repeated, reaching his arm up as though to stretch out the ache when in reality he stretched his fingers into his hoodie and found Baby Tooth, who immediately cuddled his fingers to assure him she was alright.

"Well, there are some dragons who like eels and can live off them," Hiccup said, resuming their walk. "Most dragons can't stand eels. Not that I blame them there," Hiccup said, giving Toothless an understanding look when the black dragon grumbled at the mention of the eels. "The Death Song actually preys on other dragons," Hiccup then said, getting Jack's full attention once more. "It sings its death song and lures them in. Once they're close enough, the Death Song encases them in amber that solidifies and once the captured dragon is dead or weak, the Death Song consumes it," Hiccup explained.

"That's so gross," Jack said, face screwed up with disgust. "It's like a spider catching its meals," he said, the comparison somehow making him feel even worse for the dragons who'd fallen victim to the Death Song's traps.

Hiccup considered his words for a moment before eventually seeming to admit defeat with something Jack had said. "Like a what?" he asked curiously.

Jack looked at him with surprise. "You don't have –?" he cut himself off suddenly with a look of revelation. "No, actually it makes sense you wouldn't have any spiders here. It's too cold for them to survive," Jack said, gesturing around the village. "Count yourself lucky. One of the few perks of being a winter spirit who can't stand the heat is that I never have to encounter spiders unless I'm really unlucky," Jack told Hiccup.

"That's fascinating but you haven't actually explained what a spider is yet," Hiccup reminded him, a smirk forming on his face when Jack chuckled sheepishly.

"Good point," Jack said just as the Great Hall came into view. The stone steps had lit lamps lighting the way up them while two large lamps shone over the doorways. Honestly, Jack couldn't help but think it looked beautiful, what with how the light produced by the flames flickered and danced across the carvings. "So, a –" Jack found himself cut off by a familiar face who greeted Hiccup exuberantly the moment he'd spotted him.

"Hiccup!" Gobber called, waving his prosthetic hand on the off chance they'd missed him. Jack couldn't help the way his eyes immediately fell to Gobber's companion, Gothi. The elder was watching him intensely as she and Gobber made their way over to the three of them. Hiccup barely had time to flash Jack an apologetic smile before Gobber was speaking again. "Yer dad wanted me ta tell ya that he probably won't be back at the house until late. He's got some chiefin' business ta take care of," Gobber told him. "He said not ta worry about getting' him any dinner either."

Hiccup didn't look surprised at the news. "Thanks for letting me know, Gobber," Hiccup said, giving the older man a warm smile before he made to continue leading Jack and Toothless up to the Great Hall.

"Not so fast," Gobber said, reaching out a hand to physically stop Hiccup from going anywhere. He earned himself a sigh from the brunette, which was promptly ignored by the grizzled Viking. "Stoick told me an interestin' story about his meetin' with you and Jack earlier this afternoon," Gobber said, blue eyes locked onto Jack. "Said somethin' about him creatin' frost outta nowhere," he added, voice and eyes narrowing in both disbelief and suspicion.

Hiccup rolled his eyes before Jack could do anything. "Gobber, you believe in gnomes and trolls. Is it really so hard for you to believe in spirits as well?" Hiccup asked.

"Trolls exist! I know they do! They steal yer left socks, ya know!" Gobber insisted. Jack looked mildly surprised. This was the first time he was hearing about trolls stealing people's left socks. He knew what he was going to be asking the next troll he came across once he was back in his own time. "But I've never seen a spirit before! Let alone one who claims to control winter," Gobber added before anyone could say anything.

"I don't control winter," Jack said, surprising even himself at the fact that he'd spoken up. Until that point, he hadn't given anyone any sign that he wasn't going to leave this to Hiccup to deal with. "I help spread winter. I control most aspects of it though," Jack explained.

"So ya can make frost appear out of nowhere!" Gobber exclaimed, gaining the attention of a few curious villagers, which just added to Jack's discomfort with the whole situation.

Spirits rarely cared about his powers and Jamie and his friends had always asked about them with awe in their voices. It was nothing like the interesting mix of curious and suspicious tones Gobber was using and the intrigued, disbelieving, and/or wary looks he was getting from the villagers only added to Jack's discomfort and caused him to grip his staff just a little bit more. Hiccup seemed to notice this and was quick to intervene before Jack had to say anything more. From the look in Gothi's eyes and the grip she had on her staff; it was probably for Gobber's own good that Hiccup had spoken. "Yeah, he can. I saw it as well and so did Toothless," Hiccup said. Toothless warbled in agreement. Gobber opened his mouth to ask or say something but Hiccup cut him off. "If you want him to prove it to you, can you please wait until I'm in the forge next?" Hiccup asked. "Toothless has spent most of the day flying and helping us hunt boars. He's starving and Jack and I are both hungry as well," Hiccup said, allowing some of his exhaustion to leak into his voice.

Gobber didn't look incredibly happy but one glance at Toothless, who now looked one argument away from taking Gobber's other hand had the Viking change his mind about what he was going to say next. "Oh, alright then," Gobber said, flapping his flesh hand at Toothless so the dragon would stop looking at him like that. "When can I expect my apprentice back in the forge? I gotta lotta orders to catch up on, ya know!" Gobber said, giving Hiccup a raised eyebrow.

"So long as Dad doesn't want us out hunting or fishing tomorrow, I'll bring Jack with me to the forge tomorrow. If he does, it'll probably be the next day," Hiccup swore. Jack wasn't too happy about the plan – hot forge, winter spirit – but he didn't argue about it. He just hoped neither Viking would take offense if he hung around _outside_ the forge rather than inside. If he was lucky, Toothless would stay with him so that Hiccup wouldn't be forced to choose between following his father's orders and slowly killing Jack, the latter of which Jack hoped would be the least favourable option of the two.

Gobber seemed much happier with this answer than he had been with Hiccup's answer before if the look on his face was anything to go by. "Ya best keep that promise, ya hear me?" Gobber demanded, waving his hook threateningly at Hiccup, who looked remarkably unphased by it. "No slippin' off on some adventure around the Archipelago to avoid me or ya father," Gobber warned.

"I won't," Hiccup promised and that seemed to be enough for Gobber to fully believe him.

"Good," the forge-master said with a nod. "Then I'll be seein' both of ya bright and early tomorrow mornin'," Gobber said. There was a small growl from Toothless that had Gobber rolling his eyes and correcting himself. "The _three_ of ya. Ya happy now, ya overgrown reptile?" Gobber asked, tone teasing before huffing when all Toothless did was warble with happiness.

"Yes, you will, so long as Dad doesn't want us helping the hunters or fishermen," Hiccup agreed before he pushed slightly on Toothless and tugged lightly on Jack's hoodie sleeve – not, as the winter spirit quickly realised, touching his arm as he did so and Jack really wanted to know when Hiccup picked up on the fact that Jack wasn't used to being touched – to get them both moving as he turned to walk backwards for a couple of steps. "See you later, Gobber. See you around, Gothi," Hiccup said, giving the pair a wave. He quickly turned so he wasn't walking backwards up the Great Hall steps and winced when he heard a metallic thud followed by a yelped "what was that for, ya old bat?!" from Gobber. "Guess Gothi got that hit in like she wanted to," Hiccup commented casually.

"Why'd she want to hit him?" Jack couldn't help but ask as they headed up the large steps, Toothless in the lead.

Hiccup shrugged a shoulder. "Can't say for certain but probably a mixture of you being a spirit and Gothi taking Gobber's tone to mean he wasn't listening to what she'd told Dad when you first met him," Hiccup guessed.

Though he could understand the second part of Hiccup's guess, Jack was still confused by the first part. "Why would she hit him because I'm a spirit?" he queried.

"Because she's our wise woman," Hiccup stated, as if that would clear up everything. He glanced at Jack from the corner of his eye and realised it hadn't. "She takes disrespecting the gods and spirit world very seriously," he explained. "She doesn't like hearing people curse using a god's name or blaming a spirit for something if they have no proof a spirit was actually involved," he told Jack, whose confusion seemed to clear now.

"Oh, I getcha," Jack said with a nod. Fishlegs hadn't added 'wise woman' to the list of titles Gothi had when they'd been in the Great Hall earlier that day so Jack hadn't considered the elder to be one.

"I'm sorry, by the way," Hiccup said and Jack's confused frown was firmly back in place. "For Gobber acting the way he did," Hiccup elaborated.

Jack immediately shook his head, just as they entered the open doors. The heat from the inside of the hall hit Jack straight away and he could only hope they left this hall quickly. "You don't have to apologise," Jack said, doing his best to not show his discomfort with the temperature and the renewed looks of curiousity and wariness amongst the villagers who were gathered in the Great Hall. "I told you earlier; I've had worse," he added with what he hoped was an uncaring shrug.

Hiccup didn't look like he bought Jack's act but he also didn't comment on it. "Well, I'm still sorry and I'm even going to apologise in advance for whatever happens with Gobber when we do go to the forge," Hiccup told him, a small smirk on his lips when Jack rolled his eyes. "What do you want for dinner?" Hiccup asked as he led them through the Great Hall, aided greatly by Toothless, who was parting the crowd with ease. "There's boar, chicken, or some stew," Hiccup listed, giving Jack his options.

"Uh," Jack said intelligently, "just some chicken? I don't eat an awful lot," Jack told him. The heat from the Great Hall and the villagers was really starting to get to Jack so he was hoping that Hiccup and Toothless weren't going to take their time or that they wouldn't be held up by some of the villagers.

Hiccup nodded at Jack's words before he headed for one of the tables laden with cuts of meat. He grabbed two plates before he pulled some meat onto both of them. "Right, ready to go?" Hiccup asked, passing the plate with a single chicken leg and thigh while he held onto the one with cuts of boar meat on it.

Jack frowned at Toothless. "Don't we need to get him some dinner too?" he asked.

"No, we have plenty of fish at home for him," Hiccup assured him. Toothless rumbled in agreement so Jack dropped the subject, choosing to nod at Hiccup's original question instead. "Good. Let's get out of here before someone decides they need to talk to me about something," Hiccup muttered.

"Sounds good to me," Jack said readily. He could feel sweat building up underneath his hoodie and knew his face was likely starting to flush with his rising body temperature.

Hiccup looked slightly concerned with the eagerness in Jack's voice but, to the winter spirit's relief, the dragon rider didn't question it. "Come on," he said instead, gesturing for Toothless and Jack to follow him, something both of them did readily.

The moment they walked out of the Great Hall, Jack couldn't hold in his sigh of relief as the wind brought a particularly cold breeze with it to wrap around him like a comforting hug. From the way Hiccup didn't react, Jack suspected that the wind was keeping most of the chill away from his companion and Toothless, which Jack couldn't help but grin at. Seemed like the wind had taken a shine to Hiccup and Toothless, something it had very rarely done back in his own time. It had taken several months for it to warm up – so to speak – to Bunny, something that the Guardian of Hope had found far less amusing than Jack had.

The walk up to the chief's house was done in a comfortable quiet and Jack was content to let it stay quiet and, from the looks of it, so was Hiccup. A few Terrible Terrors – as Hiccup had called them when Jack asked – came down to check the three of them out on their walk, particularly Jack since they'd never seen him before. Toothless had allowed it for all of half a minute before he growled at them, causing them to take off back towards the village. When they got to the house, Skullcrusher was still in the same spot he had been before, just rolled onto his other side.

"Has Dad been back to feed you tonight, Skullcrusher?" Hiccup asked as they approached the dragon. Jack hung back with Toothless, not yet comfortable enough with dragons – other than Toothless – to be as close as Hiccup was to them. The dragon rumbled something and Hiccup nodded. "I'll bring you out some fish in a minute," he promised the green and red dragon, who snorted in what Jack assumed was happiness.

"Do you want a hand feeding them?" Jack asked as they headed into the house. Toothless quickly lit the fire pit and Jack grimaced slightly at the thought of how warm the house was going to be soon. Even the unusual fire Toothless had used hadn't been enough to distract him from that fact.

Hiccup shook his head as he placed his dish on the table. "No, Toothless will tip his over to get better access to it and the bags aren't that heavy so I can take Skullcrusher's out to him without any help," he assured Jack. "I'll be back in a minute," he said as he pulled the lid off of one of the big, fish-smelling bags and indicated for Toothless to help himself while he grabbed another one.

The moment Hiccup was out the side door with the half-filled bag, Toothless knocked over his and devoured three fish in as many bites. Jack shook his head at the scene as he sat in the same seat he'd been in when Stoick was interrogating him earlier that day and placed his plate in front of him. He looked at Toothless for a moment and sighed silently, wishing that the dragon had followed his human outside so that Baby Tooth could've used the opportunity to stretch her wings for the first time since Jack had come face to face with the dragon riders. Before he could do much more than form the idea of letting Baby Tooth come out hiding while Toothless' back was to them, Hiccup came back into the room and destroyed any plan Jack may have come up with.

Hiccup rolled his eyes at the sight of his dragon's feed bag knocked over while Toothless happily munched on the fish closest to him before he grabbed two wooden cups, filled them with water from a bucket and joined Jack, sitting in the same chair he had been earlier that day as well. The brunette slid one cup of water of to Jack, which the winter spirit accepted gratefully, before he pulled his plate of boar meat towards him and Jack mimicked the action with the chicken leg and thigh in front of him. "So what did you think on your first official tour of Berk? I didn't get the chance to ask before we were interrupted by Gobber," Hiccup said, looking up at Jack before he placed a piece of boar meat in his mouth.

"It's a beautiful island," Jack said honestly. "I know we only went around the perimeter and visited the cove you found Toothless in but it's probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen," he told Hiccup. He wasn't lying either. The combination of the low temperature, the scenery, and the clean air made Berk one of his top ten favourite places. "I can't wait to explore more of it," Jack added with a grin before he took his first bite of the chicken. While cooked well, it was a bit bland from – Jack assumed – the fact that Vikings didn't know what seasonings were. He resolved to see if he could find any wild herbs growing on Berk so he could introduce them to what they were missing out on.

"Well, if we have the time tomorrow, I'll take you with me on another patrol and we'll check out more of the island. If we're lucky, we might be able to leave earlier and I can show you more things," Hiccup told him, speaking between bites of food.

"Sounds good to me," Jack said honestly. He was looking forward to being able to see more of Berk. He just wished that he'd be able to go on his own so he wouldn't have to rely on an escort being agreeable to showing him around but he knew it wouldn't likely ever happen while he was here so he let the wish go. Deciding to move the conversation along, Jack changed the subject. "So how did that story about Mildew buying those plants end?" he asked Hiccup, referring to the story Stoick had interrupted Hiccup telling Jack earlier that day.

Hiccup snorted just before he took a sip of water. "Right, so I told you that Dad had forced Mildew to come with us while we looked for a Scauldron and how much complaining we had to endure from him before we even got on the boat, right?" Hiccup asked and Jack nodded, eyes lit up in amusement as he waited eagerly for Hiccup to continue the earlier story. Jack felt Baby Tooth wriggle a little against his neck so that she could hear the story better. "Okay, so we finally got Mildew on the boat and headed out, trying to…"

* * *

Jack stared up at the wooden roof that hung over Hiccup's room as he waited for everyone in the house to fall into a deep sleep so he could sneak out. Though he was an incredibly quiet person by nature – winter often had a way of sneaking up on people, after all – he didn't know how good Toothless' hearing was or if the dragon would accept his reasons for wanting to escape the room. He felt his skin prickle uncomfortably with the heat in the house and he shifted slightly on his blanket nest/makeshift bed as he tried to stop himself from racing out of the open window in Hiccup's room this minute. Baby Tooth was curled up in his hoodie still but next to his ear so he wouldn't be laying on her. Jack knew she was awake and well aware of his discomfort but all he could do was reassure her by scratching her head.

The funny thing was that Jack thought he might have been relatively comfortable if the only source of heat was the fire pit in the loungeroom where Stoick had fallen asleep barely half an hour ago. Toothless and Hiccup had kept it fed and lit for the three hours between Toothless first lighting it and when Hiccup had eventually called it a night. Jack had kept his distance from the fire and when he'd first entered Hiccup's room and felt the lingering chill from the open window, he'd been relieved. But then Toothless had used his fire to warm up the sheet of bedrock in one corner of Hiccup's room and Jack's discomfort had grown tenfold. The open window didn't let any breeze into the room and Jack was worried that if he tried calling the wind to him, Hiccup would feel it and close the window to stop it from entering his room. Jack wasn't sure why the bedrock hadn't cooled down in the time since Toothless had first warmed it and now but he didn't appreciate it.

It took another ten increasingly uncomfortable minutes before Stoick's snoring could be heard from the lower level of the house and Jack breathed a sigh of relief. Poking Baby Tooth lightly twice, he gave her the signal that he was about to get up and that she should hold onto something. There was a light prick to the side of his neck that told him she was ready and with that, Jack grabbed his staff and stood up quietly, the blankets of his borrowed bed shifting slightly with his movements. Keeping silent, Jack moved for the window, using his agility and petite build to his advantage as he made sure to avoid any and all obstacles. He couldn't use the wind to get him through the window for the same reason he couldn't call on it to help cool him down. Using his staff to vault himself onto the ledge of the window, Jack was quick to pull his staff around so it was out the window before he let himself drop, knowing the wind would catch him. He didn't look back into the room as he floated up to the roof, an unconscious decision that meant he didn't notice the large, bright, green eyes watching him.

* * *

Jack had the wind set him gently down on the roof of Hiccup and Stoick's home and he sighed in happiness as it caressed him, helping lower his body temperature once more. He paced along the peak of the rooftop and came to a stop on the edge of it before he lightly leapt down onto the carving that hung over the front door and looked out over Berk. There weren't as many fires lit now that most of the village was asleep. He could hear the quiet noises that came with night-time, the waves crashing on the beaches nearby and into the cliff-faces and he couldn't stop himself from inhaling the salty smell of the ocean. He looked over the inky black sky and felt his stomach clench with sadness when he realised he was waiting for Sandy's golden ropes of dream-sand to appear. While he knew Sandy was the oldest Guardian, it looked like that maybe he wasn't this old after all.

Deciding not to linger on that thought, Jack headed back onto the roof top and sat down on the broad plank that made the top of the roof. "You can come out now, BT," Jack whispered, keeping his voice as low as possible. He knew how well sound carried at night and the last thing he needed was for Stoick to find out he'd snuck out on his first night here.

Baby Tooth didn't hesitate and Jack almost choked on his laughter as he watched one of his closest friend's zip around like it had been years since she'd last flown. Jack couldn't blame her though. He wouldn't have appreciated being kept in a hoodie for hours at a time. He watched her as she darted around the immediate area, taking in the sights properly now that Jack's hair or hoodie wasn't obscuring her view. She headed back into the house through the same window that Jack had left through and Jack felt his heart leap into his throat once she was out of his sight. However, she reappeared only a few seconds later and Jack's heart unclenched.

Baby Tooth seemed to notice his relief and chirped out a quiet apology. "I know you're curious, BT," Jack assured her. "You don't have to apologise for that," he said. "Just remember that you need to be more careful than I do," Jack reminded her. "I look human and that's working more in my favour than anything else and while I don't want to think anyone on Berk would do something bad to you if they found you, I really don't want to take that risk," he said.

Baby Tooth chirped an agreement before she fell silent, apparently contemplating something. Jack waited the few moments it took for her to think about whatever it was she was thinking of and eventually she chirped out a question that had Jack frowning slightly. "Will I introduce you to Hiccup and the other riders?" he asked, wanting to make sure he'd understood her right. She gave a nod of agreement as she continued hovering in front of his face, letting her wings get all the exercise they could. "I," Jack said before he hesitated so he could really think his response over. "I think that eventually I will," he told her. "I trust Hiccup and maybe Fishlegs at least. The other four I'm not sure of," he divulged. "I don't want to risk you being hurt or worse because they reacted out of fear of the unknown," he said. "As for their dragons, I really don't know what I think to them myself, let alone meeting you," he added with a sigh.

Baby Tooth didn't seem surprised with his answer and chittered at him again. "If you think it's safe to meet them, I'll let you," Jack said in response to her. Baby Tooth seemed happy with that, giving Jack a warm smile before she darted away, moving down the house to investigate the flowering bushes near Stoick's house.

Jack was happy to let her explore, doing his best to ignore the knot of worry that formed in his gut every time she left his sight. Baby Tooth seemed to realise what he was feeling since she made sure to frequently come back so he could see she was alright, which he greatly appreciated. On one such check-in, Baby Tooth got an all-too familiar look in her eyes and Jack was quick to dart out a hand to grab her lightly before she could take off. "You can't do your job here, BT," Jack told her and got an indignant chirp in response. "They don't know what a tooth fairy is or what they do. They'll freak out when their teeth are taken and gifts left in their place and since I'm the only new thing on the island, they'll blame me," Jack explained, feeling a little bad about using his safety as an argument point.

Baby Tooth didn't look happy about not being able to do her job – she wasn't one of Tooth's generals for no reason – but Jack soon got a nod and a quiet chirped promise that she wouldn't collect any teeth and leave gifts while they were in Berk. Jack let out a silent sigh of relief as he smiled at her and released her from the light hold he had her in. "Thank you, BT," Jack said gratefully. The little tooth fairy made a show of rolling her eyes and sighing long-sufferingly before she pecked Jack lightly on the cheek and moved to flit off to whatever caught her attention next.

Only for the little fairy to stop dead in her tracks as she came face to face with Toothless. Both Jack and Baby Tooth froze in shock at the fact that such a large creature was able to sneak up on them without alerting them. Jack was the first one to move and – just like he'd done when he first met the dragons and their riders in mid-air – he snatched Baby Tooth out of the air and took a couple of steps backwards, placing the fairy safely in his hoodie while he held his staff in a way that didn't look threatening but so that he could use it quickly if he needed to. Toothless watched him do this with a mix between curiousity and disappointment.

"We weren't going to leave," Jack told the dragon, his voice shaking slightly. Was Stoick waiting outside the house for Toothless to bring Jack down so he could throw him in a cell? Toothless tilted his head and regarded Jack, eyes finally leaving the shoulder that Baby Tooth was hiding behind. "I wasn't going to sneak off or try and attack Berk or anything like that," Jack said, a small amount of pleading in his voice as he begged Toothless to believe him.

Toothless blinked slowly before cooing questioningly and looking at Jack's left shoulder before flicking his eyes back to Jack. Though he didn't speak dragon, Jack was fairly sure he knew what Toothless was trying to ask. "You want to know who my friend is?" he asked and Toothless gave a small nod before his green eyes flicked back to Baby Tooth's hiding place. "Her name is Baby Tooth and she's a fairy. I didn't tell anyone she was with me because I didn't want her hurt if I couldn't trust you. She's really friendly. She won't hurt anyone or the village," Jack told him. Toothless cooed again, this time with excitement as he took a step closer towards Jack, who barely managed to hold his ground. "You want to meet her?" Jack asked and Toothless nodded once more but a bit more enthusiastically than he did before. "BT?" Jack asked, leaving the decision up to the fairy.

For a moment, Jack thought that Baby Tooth wasn't going to come out of hiding but she soon flittered over his shoulder and stopped within arm's reach of Jack, obviously trusting him to be faster than the dragon if things went south. Jack stepped a little closer while Toothless sat, green eyes wide with wonder as he watched the nervous fairy. "This is Baby Tooth," Jack said, introducing the fairy to the dragon, "and, Baby Tooth, this is Toothless," he said, finishing the introductions.

Baby Tooth chittered out her own greeting that had Toothless gurgling his own greeting back. Jack watched as Baby Tooth seemed to relax slightly and chirped at Toothless again. The dragon seemed happy with this and responded with some low growls. Jack felt an enormous weight lift off of him that continued to leave the longer it went without Toothless attacking Baby Tooth or him. It took a few more exchanges before it clicked for Jack and he held up a hand to stop them. "Can you two understand each other?" he asked, looking between the two.

Baby Tooth nodded before she chirped at Jack, gesturing between herself and Toothless. It took Jack a little bit to understand what she was saying due to her excitement but he finally got the gist of it. "You can understand him because you, as a tooth fairy, can understand all beings?" Jack asked and Baby Tooth nodded. "I didn't realise you girls could do that. Seems you're more talented than I first thought," Jack said, tone slightly teasing as Baby Tooth flushed as much as the fairy could. Toothless just watched this exchange with a curious expression before he made an impatient noise that had Jack snorting lightly. "Sorry for interrupting the two of you," he said, holding his hands up in apology even though he had a smirk on his face. "Go back to your conversation. I'll just chill here," he told them, shooing Baby Tooth back towards the dragon before he laid down so he could see the bright stars shining above him. He grinned as he listened to the quiet chirping, chittering, and squeaking from Baby Tooth and the equally quiet responding coos, growls, and rumbles from Toothless.

Jack didn't know how long it was between him starting his stargazing and him feeling something heavy nudge his bare foot but that nudge broke him out of his doze, causing him to sit up quickly to find the culprit. Having momentarily forgotten where he was, Jack had been expecting a troublemaking elf or maybe Phil or one of the other Yetis at North's but he was quickly reminded of the day's events when he found Toothless watching him. "Sorry, I must've zoned out," Jack said as he stretched. It wasn't like he was in pain or uncomfortable from relaxing on the wood since he was used to sleeping in tree branches and on the odd forest floor but the stretch still felt awesome.

Baby Tooth twittered at him in concern and he flashed her a reassuring smile. "I'm all good, BT," he promised her. She obviously believed him because there wasn't a follow up lecture about lying to her or trying to hide the truth from her, which was always a good thing in Jack's books. Toothless' rumbling got Jack's attention and he focused on the black dragon, who was looking between Jack and where the open window to Hiccup's room would be. Though he was almost positive he knew what the dragon was asking, he still decided to check. "You want to know whether I'm coming back in?"

Toothless nodded in agreement and Jack grimaced at the thought of going back into the stifling house. "Um, would you be alright with me and BT staying up here if I swear neither of us will leave?" Jack asked, eyes flicking to Toothless before they darted to look at the wooden rafters of the rooftop. Baby Tooth petted his cheek comfortingly while Toothless made an inquiring noise, causing Jack to sigh. "As a winter spirit, I can't handle warm weather or temperatures well," Jack told the dragon. "I know it's pleasant for you, Stoick, and Hiccup in there but to me it's stifling. I felt like I was going to choke on the heat while I was waiting for everyone to go to sleep," Jack divulged. "Please. We won't go anywhere and I'll make sure I'm back in Hiccup's room before Stoick finds out I left the house so Hiccup won't get in trouble," Jack promised the dragon.

Toothless seemed to consider him for a few moments, eyes just about boring holes into Jack as the dragon made his decision. Finally, Toothless gave him a nod before he disappeared off the house and slipped quietly back into Hiccup's room. Jack held his breath but when twenty seconds has passed and he couldn't hear any footsteps, he let it out. It seemed that Toothless was trusting him to keep his word. He had to admit; it was kind of shocking to have someone who hadn't known him for even a day just take his word and trust him like that but he decided not to dwell on it so he wouldn't tip off Baby Tooth to his thoughts.

"Did you want to stay with me or head into Hiccup's room?" Jack asked his companion. Though Baby Tooth had developed a better tolerance to the cold than her sisters had due to her friendship with him, it didn't mean she was immune to it and Jack didn't want her to be uncomfortable because of him.

Baby Tooth didn't bother giving him a verbal answer. She just slipped into his hoodie's pocket and curled up in there, causing Jack to huff out some laughter as he rolled his eyes and lay back like he had been while Baby Tooth and Toothless were speaking. He kept a tight hold of his staff as he resumed his stargazing. The wind made sure to surround him with the cool breeze from the snowy mountain peaks at the top of Berk and Jack let out a content sigh before he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who left a comment on this story last week!! They all made my day :D speaking of days, happy Valentine's Day to any of you who celebrate the holiday :D Hope you all have a good week and I'll see you in a week's time :D


	5. Chapter 5

When Hiccup opened his eyes the next morning, the first thing he did once he'd stretched and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes was check on Toothless. He found his dragon curled on the still-warm bedrock sheet that was his bed with his tail fin over his eyes in an attempt to block the morning sun from waking him for a little longer. Hiccup couldn't help but grin at the sight and went to sink back into his bed to see if he could also get a few more minutes sleep when he remembered that they had a guest. His green eyes darted to the pile of blankets that he'd put together for Jack to sleep on, expecting to see the white-haired winter spirit still asleep but instead, he found the bed empty. It took a moment for that sight to sink in and Hiccup sucked in a breath as he realised what it meant. He frantically looked around his room, hoping to find the winter spirit somewhere there but he didn't.

Throwing the blankets off himself, Hiccup grabbed his prosthetic and connected it in record time. Moving towards the balcony that gave him a complete overview of the bottom half of the house, Hiccup was both relieved to see that his father was still asleep but distressed to find that Jack was nowhere to be seen. Panic started to set in as his brain tried to puzzle out what happened. Jack wasn't here in this house which meant he'd left at some time during the night. Toothless and Skullcrusher hadn't woken him or his dad up which meant that either Jack had managed to sneak past them both or that he was here somewhere but Hiccup couldn't figure out where. He headed back to his bed and sat on the end of it as he considered his options, not noticing that his movements had woken his dragon up.

Hiccup could head downstairs, wake his father, and tell him that Jack was gone. It's definitely what he should do. His father would likely launch a search party of dragon riders to try and track Jack down and Hiccup would never survive the lecture he'd get from him or the smug gloats he'd cop from Snotlout. Astrid would probably mimic his father and lecture him within an inch of life then not talk to him for however long it would take for him to come up with a really good apology. Hiccup grimaced as he imagined all of that, deciding that one would be his last resort. The next option he had would be readying Toothless for a flight and tracking Jack down himself. It meant he'd worry his father and likely break his promise to Gobber but he might be able to find Jack and persuade him to come back. If he could, he could then claim he and Jack had gone for a flight and lost track of time. The only other option Hiccup could come up with in his panic was pretending Jack had attacked him and snuck out but he didn't like the idea of doing that.

In his distress, Hiccup didn't notice Toothless' concerned warble or the fact that his dragon was eyeing the window as though he was waiting for something. What he did notice was the sound of the wind rushing in and something setting down lightly. He didn't even manage to fully look around when a voice spoke. "You okay, Hiccup?"

"Jack!" Hiccup exclaimed, barely managing to remember to keep his voice quiet. He looked over to find the winter spirit in front of his window, still dressed in his blue hoodie – as Jack had called it – and brown pants, and a concerned expression on his face, crooked staff resting on his shoulder. "Where were you? I thought you'd taken off!" Hiccup whisper-yelled, his anger rising in tandem with his relief. Jack was there, he was fine, and Hiccup wasn't going to be lectured and teased mercilessly for trusting a stranger.

Jack's face turned guilty as he looked away from Hiccup, one hand in his hoodie's pocket. "I, uh," Jack hesitated but continued when he heard Toothless' and Baby Tooth's encouragement, "I can't handle the heat. Perk of being a winter spirit," Jack said with a nonchalant shrug. "It got too hot in here for me last night and I couldn't take it anymore. I headed up onto your roof so I could sleep there," Jack told him, face nothing but apologetic. "Toothless found me and I promised him I wouldn't be leaving the house. I just couldn't stay in here," he said. "I'm sorry I didn't say anything and that I caused you to panic this morning. I didn't realise you were up until I heard Toothless," Jack told him, voice a touch guilty.

Hiccup's adrenaline rush and panic had died down with every word Jack spoke and guilt soon replaced it. "I am so sorry, Jack. I didn't consider whether the house would be too warm for you or not," Hiccup apologised. "I should've. You did mention last night that you didn't react well to heat," he said, angry at himself.

"It's not your fault and I was fine once I got outside," Jack told him, a little uncomfortable with how upset Hiccup was at himself for Jack's discomfort. "I'll just camp on the roof at night. I'll make sure I'm back in the house before Stoick wakes up so you don't get in any trouble," Jack promised him.

Hiccup shook his head. "That can't be comfortable for you," Hiccup protested.

"I've been sleeping in tree branches for 300 years. Trust me, it's really not as uncomfortable as you'd think compared to some of the tree branches I've slept on," Jack told him, a slight chuckle in his voice even as he winced at the reminder of a few of those trees.

Hiccup didn't look awfully convinced but he also couldn't come up with another alternative for Jack so, for the moment, he decided to drop the subject. Instead, he focused on his dragon. "I can't believe you didn't tell me he'd snuck out, Toothless!" Hiccup scolded with minimal heat behind his words. If Toothless didn't wake him, it was because his dragon trusted that Jack wouldn't be going anywhere and that he could handle it so he wasn't actually mad at him.

Toothless knew full well that Hiccup wasn't really chiding him and his look told him exactly that. To Hiccup's surprise, however, Toothless didn't talk back at him but instead focused on Jack and made a couple of soft huffing noises. Hiccup thought he heard the sound of a bird outside the window but Toothless and Jack reacted to the noise in a way that made him think the bird was somehow _inside_ his room. Jack gave Hiccup another guilty look before he reached into his hoodie's pocket and pulled out something that Hiccup couldn't quite make out.

"Please don't panic," Jack asked, blue eyes filled with an apology as he opened his hand and let a little blue bird loose into the room.

At first, Hiccup was confused as to why Jack would apologise about having a bird until the 'bird' came up to his face and he saw it up close for the first time. The creature was tiny, barely big enough to fit in Hiccup's hand but it was beautiful. The iridescent feathers shifted colours from blue to green to purple in the morning light and its large, purple eyes were stunning. The long, thin beak on its face worried Hiccup slightly, especially when the creature got a little closer but he didn't panic. He also noted its delicate hands and fingers and that the wings on its back were flapping so rapidly that Hiccup couldn't see them. The creature gave a small squeak of excitement before it flitted back to Jack then down to Toothless, who was watching it with familiarity and allowed it to sit on his head.

"Her name is Baby Tooth," Jack's voice got Hiccup's attention and his green eyes found worried blue ones, "and she's a fairy," Jack revealed. "She's one of my closest friends and she was with me when I turned up here. I didn't want anyone to know about her in case…" Jack trailed off but Hiccup knew where his thoughts had been going.

"In case we turned on you two," the brunette finished for the winter spirit, who nodded. "Toothless met her last night, didn't he?" Hiccup asked and again, Jack nodded.

"I didn't mean to introduce them," Jack told him. "For something as large as he is, Toothless is very sneaky," Jack said with a chuckle that had Toothless preening. "I told her she could come out of hiding and stretch her wings. We weren't paying attention and she almost flew straight into him," Jack recounted.

Hiccup snorted. "He takes great pride in sneaking up on people," Hiccup revealed. "Though he doesn't do that to Astrid anymore, do you, bud?" Hiccup asked, eyes teasing as Toothless grumbled at his rider.

Jack really wanted to ask what the story was behind that exchange but Stoick's voice interrupted them. "Hiccup, Jack, come down and get some breakfast before it's gone!"

Hiccup exchanged a look with Jack before he called back. "Coming, Dad!" They heard Stoick grumble something in response before Hiccup spoke to Jack again. "I won't tell Dad what happened last night. I don't think he'd be incredibly happy with any of us," Hiccup said.

"Thanks, Hiccup," Jack said gratefully. He hadn't realised he'd been worried about Hiccup telling Stoick until the brunette had promised to not do that.

"Don't worry about it," Hiccup said dismissively. "This is to save me a lecture as much as it to save you from the prison cells," he said with a smirk that had Jack rolling his eyes. "Head downstairs and tell him I'll be down in a minute. I just need to get dressed," Hiccup told Jack, who gave him a nod.

"Will do," Jack said before turning to Baby Tooth. "You coming with me today or do you want to stay here?" he asked. Now that Hiccup and Toothless knew about her, Jack wanted to give her some options so she wasn't stuck in his hood all day. Baby Tooth chirped at him before she took flight and dove back into his hoodie. "See you down there," Jack said to Hiccup and Toothless before he headed down the stairs to give the brunette some privacy.

Jack was down the stairs in no time even without the wind's help and therefore he was in the kitchen just in time to accept the bowl of stew Stoick had been about to place on the table until he'd spotted Jack out of the corner of his eye. "If you want it heated up, I'll have Toothless restart the fire," Stoick offered gruffly.

The bowl of stew in his hand was probably cold to plenty of people but to Jack, it was fine. "No, I'm all good. Thanks, though," he said as he took his seat at the table. Jack saw Stoick nod at him as he served up two more bowls, one far larger than the one in Jack's hand and the second one in Stoick's hands. He didn't pay much more attention since he'd planned to try the stew when Hiccup's request echoed in his mind. "Oh, uh, Hiccup said he'll be down in a minute or two. He's getting dressed," Jack said, dutifully relaying the message.

Stoick frowned at his words. "I thought I heard him walking around with his leg on," Stoick said, looking up at the room that Hiccup slept in. "That usually means he's ready for the day," he added though Jack had a feeling he hadn't meant to say that out loud.

Since Jack didn't really know what to say to that, he decided to not comment at all except to say, "thank you for breakfast."

Stoick was pretty quick to wave of his thanks with a hand as he took a seat at the table. "Don't worry about it. It's just stew leftover from last night's dinner at the Great Hall," Stoick told him before he took a bite of his own breakfast.

Thankfully, Hiccup managed to save Jack from the somewhat awkward silence after only another minute of sitting at the table and eating the stew in front of him without speaking. "Sorry, Dad. Thanks for grabbing us breakfast," Hiccup said as he took his seat opposite Jack and on the other side of Stoick. Hiccup raised a brow at Jack, who merely shrugged before he took another bite of stew.

"You're welcome, son," Stoick said, giving Hiccup a small but warm smile. "I'd like for you and your dragon riders to coordinate with the A team again. I need you to arrange for three more boar hunts and four more fishing trips before this week is out," he told Hiccup, who nodded. "I also need you to find some time in your days to start shadowing me. You need to start your training," Stoick informed him.

Jack saw the flicker of a grimace cross Hiccup's face before he managed to hide it. "I'll see if I can get a group together to help me with some fishing this afternoon. I'll send Astrid's team to hunt boars tomorrow since we only did a hunt yesterday," Hiccup told him. "I promised Gobber that Jack and I would go and see him in the forge so I could help him with his orders. Apparently the forge is starting to get a backlog. I might be helping out there for a few days until Gobber's back on top of all of it," Hiccup said casually. "Once I'm done in the forge today and with the fishing trip, I want to get the riders together to arrange some training missions again. We might be able to figure out a way to use the fishing trips and boar hunts as part of our training," Hiccup suggested, his voice filled with a bit more enthusiasm than it had been before. Jack glanced at Stoick in time to see a weary look spark in his eyes as Hiccup continued. "Maybe we can team up and see which dragons can trap more fish while their partner defends them above the water. Oh! Or –"

"That sounds great, son. I'm sure you and your riders will come up with lots of ideas for training when you speak with them," Stoick said as he ate the last of his stew before he stood, chair scraping loudly enough against the floorboard that Toothless winced. "I have to get to a meeting with Thurid and some of the other women of the village. Something about needing more materials for clothing," Stoick rambled out as he placed his dirty dish on a bench and headed for the door, grabbing his helmet as he moved. "I'll see you tonight. Probably," he said before he left, barely giving Hiccup enough time to give his own goodbye before the door shut.

"Works every time," Hiccup said, a large, self-satisfied grin on his face as he ate another spoonful of stew.

Jack raised an impressed brow before he finished off the last of his stew, grateful that Stoick had seemed to think he and Hiccup had pretty similar appetite sizes. "You did that on purpose?" Jack asked.

Hiccup nodded before he scraped the last of the stew out of his own bowl, something that surprised Jack because he was certain his bowl had been half-full when Stoick had stood up. "Yeah," Hiccup told him. "Dad's been trying to push me into taking over the chief position, which means a lot of training and he refuses to listen to me when I say that I'm not ready to take on the role right now. Talking about potential training missions always gets him out of the room. Personally, I think it's so he has plausible deniability for when the twins or Snotlout inevitably mess up the training session and turn it dangerous for us and/or the village," Hiccup explained with a shrug.

Jack gave him a sympathetic look. "Remind me to tell you about my first experience with the Guardians sometime," Jack said as he followed Hiccup in leaving the table and putting their dishes with Stoick's.

"Sounds like that's gonna be an interesting story," Hiccup said as they headed out the house and into the sunshine. Toothless was quick to leave the house and head off to greet Skullcrusher with an enthusiasm that Jack knew Jamie would envy. "I'll have to try and remember to get you to tell me it at some stage today," he said. "But first, let's go and find the others. We have some training missions and hunts to organise."

* * *

"What's up?" Astrid asked the moment she had dismounted Stormfly. She glanced at the rest of the gathered riders before she looked at Jack then Hiccup. It was obvious she wanted to ask whether it was something to do with the winter spirit but, to Jack's surprise, she didn't. She just looked at Hiccup, silently telling him to get on with the meeting he'd called for.

"Dad's asked that we do at least three more boar hunts and four more fishing trips before the week is out," Hiccup informed them. "He wants us to coordinate with your A team," he looked at Astrid, "and get these trips organised," he told them. "I've already spoken to Spitelout, Gustav, Not-Silent Sven, and Gothi so I know what their week looks like. Only thing left to do is talk with you guys so we can get this done," Hiccup said.

"Well, I'm free this afternoon," Fishlegs said, sounding nervous about being the first one to speak. "I only need to teach my class on dragons this morning," he told them.

Snotlout rolled his eyes at Fishlegs. "Boring," he droned, crossing his arms across his chest, and glaring at Fishlegs. "I'm out today. I have training all day and Hookfang's gonna get his teeth checked," Snotlout told them. Hookfang didn't look impressed but the only argument from the dragon was a grumbled growl.

"We can help!" Tuffnut said before getting a punch to the shoulder from his sister.

"I wanted to tell him!" Ruffnut growled, pushing Tuffnut aside before she turned back to Hiccup. "We saw treasure in the sea while we were helping Astrid and the others yesterday. We wanna go get it," she told them.

Tuffnut was quick to put a hand over his sister's mouth. "There's no treasure! My poor dear sister is suffering from a severe case of… uh," he trailed off as he spent some time thinking of a good excuse, "of yak poisoning!" he exclaimed.

Hiccup raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Yak poisoning?" he asked, voice heavy with disbelief.

"Yeah, that's right!" Tuffnut said, nodding exuberantly. "Such an unfortunate thing to happen to one so young. To be bitten by a poisonous yak!" Tuffnut cried dramatically.

Jack was definitely enjoying the scene in front of him and he took the opportunity Tuffnut gave him when he collapsed dramatically at his sister's feet to glance around to gauge the rest of the group's reaction. Both Astrid and Hiccup looked bored and resigned. Snotlout looked like he half-believed them but at the same time like he wanted to start yelling at them. Fishlegs still held some of his nervous demeanour but, much like Hiccup and Astrid, he merely looked bored with the twins' antics.

"If we promise not to go after your treasure, will you knock it off?" Hiccup asked when Tuffnut's wailing grew to a pitch that was more annoying than funny. Ruffnut had started in on the dramatics by clutching various body parts and sobbing about how horrible it was.

Hiccup's question got their attention very quickly, putting a stop to the fake tears in a heartbeat. They exchanged a glance before they both nodded. "Deal," they said at the same time.

Hiccup sighed. "No one go after Ruff and Tuff's treasure," Hiccup ordered tiredly and the twins fist-pumped in victory. "So Fishlegs is in while Snotlout is out but I'm assuming the twins are in for a fishing trip this afternoon?" he directed the question to the twins, who nodded. "Once they've finished helping this afternoon, they can go after their treasure," he said, earning two whiny groans from the pair. "Astrid?" he asked.

"I can help this afternoon," Astrid said after a few moments. "I have weapons training for some new recruits this morning and I need to clean Stormfly's spines so any time after lunch should suit us," she told him.

Hiccup nodded. "Okay, well Jack, Toothless, and I will go with the twins to help Bucket and Mulch with their fishing this afternoon," Hiccup said. "Spitelout can't help today. He's got meetings with my dad. Gothi wants to prepare her stock since she believes something is going to happen soon. I don't know what before you ask. She wrote too quickly for me to figure it out," he told them just as Astrid and Fishlegs opened their mouths. "Astrid, can you take Not-Silent Sven and Gustav boar hunting this afternoon?" he asked and Astrid gave a sharp nod. "Fishlegs, you can choose whoever you want to help," Hiccup told him.

"I'll go with Astrid, if that's okay? Fishing makes Meatlug nervous," he told them, draping a comforting arm over his dragon's neck.

"I don't have a problem with that," Astrid told Hiccup before he could ask.

Hiccup gave a nod. "Great," he said. "I'll leave it to you to get your team together to organise the hunters and trappers and where you want to hunt," he told Astrid before he turned to the twins. "I'm helping Gobber in the forge this morning. I'll meet the two of you at the docks an hour after lunch," he told them sternly.

"Got it!" Tuffnut saluted. "One hour after lunch at the docks!" he repeated and Hiccup nodded. "Then after we're done getting those fish on the boat, we can go get our treasure!" he exclaimed before yelping when Ruffnut shoved him into the ground.

"You idiot!" the female twin snarled as she straddled his back and ground his face into the ground.

Jack looked minutely worried about the two of them but a glance at the other riders and their dragons showed him that they weren't. Rather, Hiccup decided to continue with their discussion. "So Gothi won't be able to help at all this week but Spitelout has said he's free tomorrow morning, three afternoons' after that, and two afternoons' after that," Hiccup said. "Not-Silent Sven can help out any afternoon since his flock will be grazing. Gustav can help every morning except for tomorrow while Bucket and Mulch said that if they've finished getting in the needed fish, they'll help where they can," Hiccup said. "I'll probably be helping Gobber in the forge for the next four or five mornings, assuming he's not exaggerating about how many orders he has so I'll only be able to help in the afternoons for now and Jack has already said that he'll help whichever group needs it," he told them.

"I can take Gustav for another boar hunt the morning after tomorrow," Astrid immediately said. "And I'll take Not-Silent Sven on a fishing trip that afternoon as well. I'll have the whole day free," she said as an explanation.

"I can go with you for the fishing trip but not the boar hunt," Fishlegs said and Astrid nodded. Jack noticed that Fishlegs had immediately turned to his dragon and was murmuring apologies to her for volunteering for a fishing trip.

"I can go with Astrid and Gustav on the boar hunt," Snotlout said, giving Astrid what Jack thought was supposed to be a flirtatious smile that the blonde immediately gagged at.

"We'll go on the fishing trip too," Tuffnut said, using the chance his sister gave him to breath to do so and to buck up, dislodging her before he launched his own attack.

"So that's another boar hunt and fishing trip sorted," Hiccup said. "I'll take Snotlout on a boar hunt in two afternoons' time," he said, "and I'll take Not-Silent Sven with me as well."

"In that case, I'll take Gustav again but we'll do a fishing trip that morning," Astrid said.

"I can go with you again," Fishlegs told her, immediately apologising to Meatlug again once Astrid nodded in agreement.

"So can we!" Ruffnut called when her brother pulled her head back by one of her braids.

Since Snotlout didn't pipe up with a protest, Hiccup decided to continue. "That leaves us with one more boar hunt and two fishing trips," Hiccup said. "I'll do the last boar hunt with Spitelout the day after the one with Snotlout," he said.

"I have that afternoon free," Snotlout and Fishlegs said at the same time.

"I'll take Fishlegs," Hiccup said. "I don't want to deal with you and your dad at the same time," he told Snotlout before the teen could even protest.

"I can't go out that day for a fishing trip. My parents need my help that day," Astrid told him.

"Snotlout, you can take the twins and Not-Silent Sven on a fishing trip," Hiccup told him. "Not-Silent Sven will be in charge," he added.

"I can run a fishing trip!" Snotlout protested and Hiccup levelled him with a flat look.

"You couldn't even follow orders on our boar hunt yesterday," Hiccup said sternly. "If it hadn't been for Jack and Fishlegs, our hunt wouldn't have been as successful as it was," he reminded him.

"Ooh, someone's in trouble!" Tuffnut sing-songed before he was cut off by Ruffnut tackling him back to the ground.

"Shut up!" Snotlout snapped at them as he pouted.

"That leaves one more fishing trip to get organised," Hiccup said, ignoring the wrestling twins and pouting Snotlout. "Spitelout can go out in five afternoons' time. I'm not sure what I'll be doing so I don't want to say I'll go with him and not be able to," Hiccup said.

"I can go with him," Astrid immediately said and Hiccup frowned at her.

"Are you sure?" the brunette asked. "You'll have gone on nearly every single fishing trip," he pointed out.

"It's fine," Astrid said dismissively. "We need to stock up the village's supplies," she added before Hiccup could try and argue.

Hiccup sighed but didn't argue, earning a smug look from Astrid. "Who can go with Astrid and Spitelout on the last fishing trip?" he asked.

"We can!" both twins immediately piped up, Tuffnut in a chokehold by Ruffnut. Jack was a little surprised that neither of them had drawn blood yet.

Hiccup nodded at them. "Anyone else?" he asked, looking at the two male teenagers who hadn't answered. His eyes went to Astrid once more. "Do you want to take Not-Silent Sven with you as well?" he asked.

Astrid considered the question for a few moments. "Yeah, wouldn't hurt to have an extra person with us if we get a good haul that day," she finally said.

Hiccup gave a nod. "I'll let them know the plan," he told her. "I'll leave it up to you to organise your hunts and who else in the village you need with you," he said and she nodded.

"I'll handle it," Astrid assured him.

"I know you will," Hiccup said with a grin that Astrid returned. "The next thing is that I want to organise some training missions for us to keep our skills sharp and maybe learn some new tricks," he said, eyes darting to Jack for a moment before they went back to the dragon riders. "We probably won't be able to do any training missions until after we've finished helping the village resupply so I'm fine with just saying that we meet up the day after Astrid's last fishing trip to discuss training ideas then?" he suggested.

The others glanced at each other – with the exception of the twins, who were still rough-housing nearby – before they nodded. "Sounds like a good idea to me," Astrid told Hiccup with Fishlegs and Snotlout nodding in agreement.

"Fantastic," Hiccup said. "I've gotta head over to the forge before Gobber thinks Jack, Toothless, and I have escaped Berk," he said with a sigh. "I'll see you guys later," he added as Toothless came up beside him. Barf and Belch seemed to have finally gotten tired of their humans fighting and had grabbed them by the backs of their shirts, forcibly separating them. Hiccup shook his head at the twins as he climbed into Toothless' saddle, clicking his prosthetic into place. "Let me know if there's a change of plan to any of the hunts or fishing trips," Hiccup said as Jack readied himself to join Toothless and Hiccup in the air.

"You too," Astrid said as she climbed into Stormfly's saddle. Snotlout didn't say anything to Hiccup before he had Hookfang take off, causing dust and forest debris to cover the rest of them. "You know he's only acting like that because you called him out," Astrid said before Hiccup could do more than sigh.

"Yeah I know," Hiccup said. "I'll catch you guys later," he repeated, this time getting a goodbye from Fishlegs as he climbed into Meatlug's saddle. "I'll see the two of you at the fishing docks one hour after lunch," Hiccup reminded the twins as they took up position behind Barf or Belch.

"Yeah, we know," Tuffnut said, sounding exasperated at the fact that Hiccup was reminding them of their agreement.

"Gods, Hiccup. Someone would think you thought we were forgetful," Ruffnut sniffed at him. "Come on, brother. Let's go somewhere we're valued," she said, turning her nose up at the others. Tuffnut huffed an agreement just before Barf and Belch took off, heading away from the village.

"Are they always that dramatic?" Jack asked curiously and grinning when he heard three large sighs.

"You have no idea," Hiccup groaned. "Come on. We need to head to Gobber's," he said as Astrid and Fishlegs headed out, leaving just Jack, Hiccup, and Toothless alone in the small clearing they'd had the meeting in.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Jack said. "Baby Tooth, you wanna fly for a bit?" he asked the little fairy, relishing in the fact that both Hiccup and Toothless knew about her so she could come out and stretch her wings a little. The small fairy chirped in agreement as she wriggled her way out. "You'll need to hide again once we're in the village. I don't want a sharp-eyed dragon to notice you and try to catch you," Jack warned her. Baby Tooth nodded in agreement before she flitted her way over to Toothless and hovered in front of him, chattering away to him. "Alright, lead the way," Jack said, making a sweeping gesture from Hiccup to the village, earning himself a flat look from the dragon rider.

"Race you." That was the only warning Jack and Baby Tooth got before Toothless took off into the sky.

"Cheater!" Jack called, voice filled with laughter as he and Baby Tooth shared a look. "Let's catch up, shall we?" Jack suggested, laughing out loud when he heard Baby Tooth's competitive squeak. His laughter only grew when Baby Tooth took off after the black dragon, chittering what Jack thought were threats aimed towards Hiccup and Toothless. Before she could get out of his sight, Jack had the wind gather him up and he shot after Baby Tooth, grinning at the irked chirps he could still hear from his friend as they raced to catch up to the dragon and his rider.

* * *

Jack, Hiccup and Toothless dropped down in the village square only minutes after leaving the clearing where they'd spoken with the other dragon riders. Baby Tooth was safely back in Jack's hoodie and out of the view of any sharp-eyed villager or dragon. "Good race, huh?" Hiccup said, earning a heatless glare from the winter spirit as he climbed off of Toothless' saddle and joined Jack on the ground.

"You're still a cheater and BT will have her vengeance later," Jack warned him, keeping his voice low so the villagers would have a harder time overhearing him.

"I'm sorry, BT," Hiccup said, earning a miffed chirp from Jack's hoodie. Jack chuckled when a flash of worry crossed Hiccup's face. "How vengeful does she normally get?" Hiccup asked as they headed towards the forge.

"Her go-to is making things the person or spirit owns sticky," Jack told him. "She once used sap from flowers to coat the bristles of Bunny's paintbrushes because he irritated her. Took him days of careful soaking and cleaning to get his brushes useable again and I still haven't been told from her or him what he did to earn that," Jack recounted, grinning at the memory of Bunny cursing fairies out before immediately apologising to Baby Tooth, who had been with Jack on that visit and hadn't been spotted by Bunny until after his rant.

"Wow. I would not have thought that she would be so diabolical," Hiccup said, now looking properly worried about his belongings' immediate future.

"She may be small but her fury and desire to get even cannot be measured by any standards," Jack told him with a laugh. He hadn't yet found himself on the wrong side of the fairy and from the stories he'd heard, Jack hoped to never find himself there.

"Excuse me?" a small, nervous voice sounded in front of them before Hiccup could say anything in response to Jack and both teenagers plus Toothless found themselves looking at a small girl who Jack didn't think was more than five standing nervously in front of them.

"Brenda?" Hiccup asked, frowning slightly at the little girl.

"Hi, Hiccup," Brenda greeted, giving him a large smile as her green eyes flicked between Toothless, Hiccup, and Jack.

"What's wrong?" the brunette asked, already looking around for her mother or father. It wasn't unusual for some of the kids to stop him and Toothless on their way somewhere to just say hello but most times it had been because their parents needed help with something, had spotted Hiccup walking past and sent their child to go grab him.

"Nothing," Brenda said, looking sheepish as she fidgeted. Her eyes landed on Jack once more before she looked away. "My mum said you're a winter spirit. Is that true?" she asked Jack, who looked mildly surprised to have this child speaking to him. None of the villagers, aside from Gobber, the dragon riders, and Stoick had spoken to him, after all.

Jack crouched down so he was eye level with Brenda, his staff resting on his shoulder. "It's true," he told her once he managed to catch her gaze. "Do you wanna see something?" he asked her, grinning when her green eyes lit up in excitement as she nodded. Jack held out his left hand, palm facing the sky before he concentrated. It only took a few moments for the blue sparks of his magic to dance over his hands as he created a small flurry of snowflakes in his palm.

Brenda's eyes weren't the only ones to light up in amazement at the sight of the snowflakes and blue sparks that Jack was holding in the palm of his hand. Both Hiccup and Toothless were watching with fascination as Jack carefully directed the flurry of snowflakes to circle Brenda, with the aid of the wind. The blonde girl laughed in delight as the snowflakes brushed up against her cheeks and wound themselves around her two, thick braids before Jack directed the small flurry upwards and cutting off his magic so he wasn't fuelling the flurry any further.

"You may get a small snowfall sometime tonight or tomorrow morning from that," Jack told Hiccup as he watched his magic flash blue as it hit a cloud before it disappeared.

"We'll live," Hiccup assured him.

"That was so cool!" Brenda gushed, getting the boys' attention back onto her. "What else can you do? How'd you learn to do that? Can you show me more?" she asked rapidly

Jack chuckled at her as he looked around them. He'd gathered a small crowd of onlookers when he'd first started using his magic and quite a few of those were children who were looking just as eager as Brenda was. "Tell you what. I have a better idea," Jack said, a small grin on his face as he looked at Brenda once more. "Why don't you gather as many kids as you can find and meet me at the forge in half an hour? I'll tell you all as many stories as I can and I'll show you some more magic," Jack offered.

Brenda's eyes lit up with excitement as she nodded. "Okay!" she agreed before she took off and headed for the closest group of children, talking rapidly, and gesturing wildly at Jack once she got to them.

Jack straightened up from his crouch and found Hiccup watching him with a slight frown. "What?" he asked, suddenly worried that his offer to tell the kids stories was something he shouldn't have done without consulting Hiccup first.

"Nothing," Hiccup said, shaking his head slightly before he started leading them towards the forge once more. "It's just, you didn't have to offer to tell Brenda or the other kids stories and show them some of your powers," he told him.

"I know," Jack said with a small shrug as what was undoubtedly the forge came into view. "But one of the few things I remember about my human life is that I was a storyteller, and a good one at that. Plus I like spending time with kids. They're usually a lot more fun than adults and they come up with some of the best ideas," he added with a grin.

"As long as you didn't offer to tell stories and entertain them because you felt obligated," Hiccup said with a small shrug. "I'm surprised you didn't instruct Brenda to have them meet you at the forge immediately so you could get out of speaking with Gobber," Hiccup said, smirking at Jack.

"Admittedly, I did think about it but I'd rather get that over and done with so I don't have it on my mind while I'm telling the kids my stories. Plus, if I get it done first, I can spend the time I'll be storytelling recovering from being inside the forge," Jack told him, eyeing the building and the various fire-pits and glowing coal pits with apprehension.

"Oh Gods, I didn't even think of that," Hiccup said, sounding stricken as he came to a stop, causing both Toothless and Jack to do the same thing. "Are you going to be alright? Do you want me to get Gobber outside?" he asked Jack, looking at him with concern.

Jack shook his head, a little embarrassed that Hiccup was so worried about him. "No, I'll be fine. It'll only be for a few minutes, right?" Jack asked.

"I'll make sure it is," Hiccup told him, still looking worried. "Let me know if it gets too much. I'll make up something to get you out of there without Gobber complaining too much," he offered, tone serious enough that Jack knew there was no way he'd be able to convince Hiccup he would be completely fine no matter how long the talk with Gobber went.

"Alright," the winter spirit agreed, a touch reluctantly. He wondered if he'd ever get over being surprised by people being worried about him like this. He was still finding himself shocked whenever the Guardians or Jamie and his friends showed their concern for him, even after a year.

"Good," Hiccup said before a shout of his name got his attention. It appeared that Gobber had spotted them lingering outside his forge and was getting impatient. "We'd better get this done with before he comes and drags us over there," the brunette said. The look on his face stopped Jack from asking whether that would actually happen or if Gobber was just bluffing.

Jack just elected to give a nod and follow Hiccup as he and Toothless headed for the side of the forge. The heat hit Jack well before they even entered the building and he took a deep breath to steady himself for what he was about to do. Hiccup glanced at him, silently asking if he was still okay and Jack gave another nod before Hiccup opened the door, allowing Toothless to go in first before the two boys followed him. The loud clanging had resumed by now and Jack took the opportunity that weaving through the various items and stations gave him to look around.

The forge was massive, built mainly from wood but there were plenty of stone stoves around. Jack didn't know what half the stuff in the forge was for since he couldn't remember ever being in one in the few memories he had from his human life and as a winter spirit, forges were pretty much on the top of the list of things he'd never investigate because of the heat they produced. There was a large – in every use of the word – Gronckle lazing in between a large fire pit and sturdy-looking metal table that was covered in various items. The Gronckle was the same colour as Meatlug but it seemed older to Jack and it didn't even open an eye when Toothless or Hiccup greeted it.

"Grump! Yer lettin' the fire die down again!" Gobber scolded, earning a grumble from the Gronckle, who then opened one eye up, lifted itself up slightly and spewed lava into the fireplace. Jack quickly moved out of the way as some of that lava splattered and oozed its way down the fireplace. "Dammit, Grump!" Gobber muttered as he used a large, metal object with a flat end to scoop some of the lava back up and flick it into the fire before it cooled enough to set or caused any problems.

"Hey, Gobber," Hiccup said as he grabbed a leather apron and put it on, securing it around his waist with the strings.

"'Bout time the two of ya got in here," Gobber said. "Yous weren't tryin' to figure out a story to get outta comin' in here, were ya?" Gobber asked, eyes narrowing as he scrutinised them.

"No," Hiccup told him honestly. Gobber watched him for a moment before nodding. "Where do you want me?" he asked, giving Jack an apologetic look but the way he saw it, he could claim to need a hand from Gobber if Jack needed to leave the forge.

"Ya can get started on getting' those weapons sorted," Gobber said, waving his prosthetic arm in the general direction he meant. "Once you've got them heatin' up to be fixed, get over to the saddles bases and start on them. We got a lotta orders for riders to get done," Gobber told him.

Hiccup gave him a nod before he headed over where he'd been told to be. Toothless stayed where he was since there wasn't a tonne of room in the area Hiccup would be for him to move around and the dragon didn't want another lecture from Gobber about knocking things over. So the black dragon stayed where he was, alternating between watching his human and the winter spirit, who was standing near him and waiting for Gobber to start asking him questions.

"Stoick told me most everythin' you told him yesterday," Gobber told Jack. "All about yer abilities and whatnot," he continued, "so I don't have any questions about that. I imagine we'll be seeing plenty of your powers 'round here while yer on Berk," Gobber commented. "You certainly have no problems showin' us yer ability to fly," he added, giving Jack a look.

"Sorry?" Jack said, utterly bewildered. This wasn't exactly how he expected this conversation to go and he would've been half-tempted to get Baby Tooth to peck him to see if he was dreaming. However, he didn't have to since how badly the heat was affecting him told him clearly that he wasn't dreaming.

Gobber waved off the apology with his flesh hand. "We're used to it and at least you don't send gods know what at us like some of the dragons 'round here," Gobber grumbled, eyeing Toothless and Grump, both of whom ignored him. Jack really wanted to nudge Gobber into asking him what he wanted to so that he could get out of the forge before he collapsed from the heat but he also didn't want to anger the forge-master since he was certain Gobber wasn't someone whose bad side he wanted to be on. Thankfully, Gobber did get to his point. "How do I make the trolls stop stealin' me left socks?" he asked, looking at Jack.

Jack felt his jaw drop in surprise. "I don't know," he admitted. "I didn't even know trolls stole socks but I promise, if I come across one while I'm here, I'll ask it and tell you what it says," he offered.

Gobber looked disappointed but gave a sad nod. "It's not like I need me right socks. They could take them if they wanted," Gobber told him, gesturing to his wooden leg.

"I'll tell them that," Jack said, tugging at his hoodie as his skin started burning lightly and the sweat started dripping. Much longer in the forge and he'd either collapse or take off and deal with Gobber's and possibly Stoick's wrath.

Gobber looked happier with that. "I'd appreciate that," he said, a hint of sincerity in his gruff voice. "Now, you can cool things down, can't you?" he asked and Jack nodded. "How?"

"Depends," Jack told him. "For small things? I can just touch them myself or with my staff and coat it with frost. For larger things, I use my staff as a conduit. It means I can funnel my power quicker and cool down whatever I'm trying to freeze much quicker," Jack explained.

"Could ya do that as we're mendin' weapons? Might make our work go a bit quicker 'round here," Gobber said, scratching his chin with his prosthetic.

"Uh, I'm not entirely sure if that's a great idea," Jack said honestly, wiping his brow. "I can't stay in here all day," Jack told him, "and from what little I know of blacksmithing, it's important to be quick," Jack said, "which means I'd likely be too slow since you'd have to call me in," he pointed out.

"How come ya can't be in 'ere all the time?" Gobber asked, sounding a little offended on behalf of his forge.

"I don't do well with the heat," Jack told him honestly. It wasn't like lying would do him any good and anyone looking at him would likely figure it out for themselves.

Gobber glanced at him before narrowing his eyes as he took in his flushed and sweaty face. "Ya really don't, do ya?" Gobber said, sounding utterly surprised by that revelation. "What are ya doin' in here then, ya idiot?" he asked.

"You wanted to talk to me," Jack reminded him.

"Not if it meant yer gonna kill yerself! I don't need to listen to Hiccup or Stoick lecturin' me for getting ya killed!" Gobber told him. Jack glanced over at Hiccup, who was smirking as he worked on a mangled sword. "Get outta here before you die or somethin'. Bloody teenagers," Gobber muttered as he shooed Jack towards the door. "Just stay where we can see ya so we can tell Stoick ya didn't leave our sight," Gobber ordered him.

"Will do," Jack agreed readily before he left the forge. He sucked in a relieved breath as the wind quickly wrapped him up in a frigid breeze, helping him fight off the heatstroke he'd been about to have. "Thanks, Wind," Jack sighed gratefully. A concerned chirp sounded next to his ear and Jack nodded. "I'm alright, BT. A few more minutes and I'll be as golden as Sandy," he told her, earning himself an unamused huff from the little fairy.

So he was following Gobber's orders, Jack headed around the front of the forge and found a small clearing just off to the side that would keep him in sight of anyone in the front and right side of the forge. To his surprise, he was quickly joined by Toothless, who simply chuffed at him before the dragon curled up on a small grassy patch. Jack eyed the dragon curiously before he looked up to see if he could spot Hiccup coming out of the forge. He didn't see that but he did see Hiccup glance out at them before he went back to work and something sparked for Jack.

"Your rider asked you to come out here and keep an eye on me, didn't he?" Jack asked the dragon, who merely opened one eye before he seemed to go back to sleep. "Knew it," Jack said, voice filled with self-satisfaction. Not knowing what else to do to kill the twenty minutes it'd take for the kids to find him at the forge for the stories and demonstrations he'd promised them, Jack decided he'd mimic Toothless and lay down. "I'm just gonna chill here, if you're cool with it?" Jack asked Toothless even as he sat next to the dragon. Said dragon only huffed at him so Jack decided to take it as permission.

Making sure he didn't touch Toothless since he really didn't know if the dragon would be okay with that, Jack laid down on his back and placed his hands behind his head to act as a makeshift pillow. He still had his staff next to him, resting on his left so it was in between him and Toothless and so he could grab it easily if he needed to. The wind made sure there was a constant cool breeze washing over Jack so he could keep cooling down and recover from the time he'd spent in the boiling forge. Sighing once more, this time contently, Jack opened his eyes so he could watch the clouds while he was waiting for the kids to turn up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to those amazing people who have been awesome enough to leave me a comment on this story so far! Each one had made me so happy and I can't wait to see what you guys have to say about this chapter :D Until next week!


	6. Chapter 6

Jack woke up to the sound of someone chirping in his ear and he groaned at the noise. "Few more minutes, BT," he said sleepily as he rolled slightly away from her. His words and actions earned him a sharp prick to his cheek that had him snapping to alertness as he placed a hand over the stinging spot. "Ow, BT! What in Manny's name was that for?" he asked as he tried to rub the sting away.

The irked fairy huffed at him before she gestured to him then at their surroundings. Jack followed her gestures, first taking in himself then the village of Berk. The lingering fog of sleep made it so it took him a couple of seconds to realise what she was showing him. There was a beautiful fresh layer of snow all over Berk, coating every surface it possibly could, which included him since he'd slept on the roof of Stoick and Hiccup's house once more. Hiccup hadn't even been asleep when he'd snuck out since Stoick had arrived at the house early enough to have dinner with them so there was no risk of Stoick walking up to Hiccup's room later on to check if he were still there and if they were both asleep.

"Oh, wow," Jack breathed out as he took in the sight of the undisturbed snow. It wasn't a massive amount of snow. The villagers would have an easy enough time walking around in it but it also wasn't an amount that meant Jack couldn't invite the village kids to join him in a snowball fight.

Jack felt a smile curl up on his lips as he remembered how excited the kids were during his storytelling yesterday. Brenda had been front and centre of the group, with her brother, Brant, sitting on her right. She'd been the first one to greet him as she led the twenty-odd children she'd managed to round up and she'd introduced Brant to him the moment she'd paused for breath and given Jack the chance to ask who the boy was. He'd regaled the children – and Toothless, who'd pretended like he wasn't listening but Jack had seen him watching out of the corner of his eye – with the tamer stories of his time with the Guardians over the last year, making sure to embellish his tale with frost animals or people or the odd snow flurry, flakes, or sparks of blue energy wherever he could. By the end of the three or so hours he'd spoken for, his group of twenty-odd children had grown to include passing by adults who'd been drawn in by the curious tales and magic show. Jack had been careful to not mention anything that would give away his status as a time traveller but he was sure he'd slipped up a few times. Story time had only ended when Hiccup had turned up, face covered in soot and sweat, and told everyone that he needed Jack's help with helping the fishermen fill their nets. The kids had been disappointed only until Jack had promised to tell them more stories the next time he could.

With the amount of snow on the ground, Jack vowed to himself that he'd invite the kids to join him in a snowball fight if he got an hour or so spare to do so. With that promise in mind, Jack got to his feet and had the wind help him into Hiccup's room through the open window. "Morning," Jack greeted the dragon rider and his dragon while Baby Tooth zoomed around so she could offer her own good mornings.

"Boys! Breakfast is ready!" Stoick called just as Hiccup opened his mouth to respond.

"Good timing," Hiccup said to Jack instead, "and morning to you two," he added as he fastened the straps of his flight suit. "You guys can go on ahead. I just have to put on my leg and I'll join you," he told Jack and Baby Tooth.

"See you down there," Jack said as he headed for the steps, twirling his staff absentmindedly as he did so. Baby Tooth caught up with him just as he reached the top of the stairs and hid in her usual spot quickly. "Morning, Stoick," Jack greeted once he was at the bottom of the steps.

"Morning," Stoick offered gruffly. "Nothing fancy for breakfast. Just some bread and warmed up gravy from the stew," he told him, gesturing to the slices of bread and pot of gravy.

"Thanks," Jack said as he grabbed a slice once he'd sat down. He poured some gravy onto his plate and dipped a portion of bread into it. Considering their lack of spices, it wasn't a bad meal and Jack was soon having a bit more.

"How come you didn't tell me about your problem with warm temperatures?" Stoick asked him casually just as Hiccup and Toothless joined them at the table.

Jack froze in his seat just as he started mopping up some more gravy with a bit of bread. "I don't usually reveal one of my weaknesses to someone I've never met before and don't trust," Jack told him honestly. It was true. He wasn't sure that the Guardians even knew about his inability to handle the heat. Jamie did but only because Jack hadn't realised the Bennet's had had their heater going all day to combat the cold of winter until after Jamie had invited him inside. The kid hadn't been impressed when Jack had finally told him why he wasn't looking well after enduring the heat for nearly thirty minutes.

Hiccup was trying to hide his worried look behind his breakfast but Stoick didn't look angry or offended. Rather, he looked understanding. "So what will you be doing when Hiccup is required to help Gobber in the forge?" Stoick asked, chewing on some gravy-soaked bread.

"Well, I spent the time Hiccup was in the forge yesterday keeping some of the kids of the village entertained," Jack told him. From the lack of surprise on Stoick's face, he figured the chief had already been told. "If that's not always an option, I'll probably find one of the other dragon riders to hang out with," he said with a casual shrug.

"Good," was all Stoick said before he turned to his son. "I need you two to help the village clear the main streets of snow so everyone has an easier time of getting around," Stoick told him. "I'll make sure Gobber knows that you'll be helping him this afternoon instead," he said.

Hiccup nodded. "Thanks," he said once he'd finished his mouthful.

"How do you clear the streets of snow?" Jack asked curiously as he dunked some more bread in the gravy. He waited until Stoick's focus was on his food so he could slip a small chunk of bread to Baby Tooth so she could have some breakfast as well. While not great for her, the bread would do until he could talk Hiccup into telling him whether there were any berry bushes in Berk that had some fruit on them so the fairy could have a better meal.

"Well, before we had the dragons, we would shovel the streets clear," Hiccup answered. "Now that we have them, we've come up with a system. We got some largeish sized tree trunks, cut them in half lengthways and carved out some of the middle so they're curved. We attach some ropes to them then harness a couple of dragons to the other end and they drag the snow clear. It only works for the straighter streets but it's a massive help with clearing efforts," he explained.

"So for the other streets you still use shovels?" Jack asked and Hiccup nodded.

"We had thought to simply have the dragons melt the snow with their fire but a couple of houses have been scorched or burned doing that and the village decided they'd rather shovel snow than potentially have to rebuild their house," Hiccup said with a shrugged shoulder.

"Can't blame them there," Jack said with a smirk. "Well, I can help shovel and the wind might even be in a nice enough mood to lend a hand with moving some of the snow but we'll have to wait and see about that," he told them.

"I thought you said you control the wind," Stoick said, eyes narrowed in suspicion as he grabbed another piece of bread.

"No," Jack told him. "The wind is a spirit of its own. It just doesn't have a physical body like I do. What I can do is _ask_ the wind to help me out and most of the time it does but it can be temperamental. I've been stranded in a country a few times for a day or two because the wind didn't want to let me ride it," he explained nonchalantly. He'd just been grateful that the handful of times the wind had decided to ignore Jack, it had been in countries that were suited for him so it hadn't been that bad to be stranded there. The wind had always been apologetic when it did finally answer his call but Jack had never held it against his oldest friend.

Both Stoick and Hiccup looked flummoxed at the revelation that the wind was also a spirit of sorts and Jack barely managed to hide his grin behind his next bite of breakfast before the two managed to break out of their thoughts. "That's very interesting to know," Hiccup said, a touch slowly. "We'll appreciate your help anyways, and if the wind wants to help out too, we'd also appreciate that," he told Jack.

Stoick simply nodded in agreement with his son's words before he changed the subject. "I've got to pay a visit to Outcast Island today so Skullcrusher won't be able to help out with the clearing. I'll be taking Thurid and Not-Silent Sven so we'll be leaving once he's put his sheep out in their pastures," Stoick told Hiccup. "Depending on how my talk with Alvin goes, I might also be paying a visit to Berserker Island as well so I'll be gone most of the day," he said.

"Tell Alvin, Dagur, and Heather I said hello when you see them and ask Heather how Windshear is going," Hiccup requested.

"Will do," Stoick promised before he ate the last of his bread. "I'll get Skullcrusher ready. Thurid and Not-Silent Sven will meet me here when they're ready," Stoick explained as he took his plate to the same bench they'd placed their dirty plates on the previous day.

"Okay," Hiccup said in response.

"Heather's the person Astrid mentioned yesterday morning on that island we spoke on, wasn't she?" Jack asked. "The one who tried to betray you to save her parents?"

"That's her," Hiccup said, a touch of fondness in his voice. He spotted Jack's confused expression when the sound of Stoick closing the side door startled him out his thoughts. "I'll tell you everything on our way into the village," Hiccup offered, amusement in his voice when he spotted the spark of curiousity in Jack's eyes.

"Deal," Jack said before he shovelled the last of his bread and gravy into his mouth. Hiccup's laughter was his only answer when he told him, "ready when you are."

* * *

Cleaning the streets of the village had proven to be a fun experience, so far as Jack was concerned. The wind had been intrigued by Jack's request and had agreed to help so Jack had been using it to move small amounts of snow, his staff acting as the handle of a shovel while the wind acted as the actual shovel head. Jack hadn't spotted any of the other dragon riders but he had been introduced to Spitelout, Gustav, and several other villagers. The majority of those villagers had actually come up to Jack and Hiccup to introduce themselves, having heard about Jack in greater detail from their children. Most of the parents had taken Jack's stories with a grain of salt but they had all thanked him for keeping their children entertained for a few hours while they were busy. Apparently, if Jack were to believe some of the stories Hiccup told him once they'd been left alone, most of the village children had to entertain themselves and that always ended in some catastrophe or another.

Both Hiccup and Jack were working together to clear the narrower streets that the wooden version of snow ploughs were too large to clear and they had been for nearly two hours, clearing almost six streets in that time, when the first of the children Jack had entertained the day before spotted him. "Jack!" the little brunette boy called, darting over to the winter spirit. "Oh, hi, Hiccup! Hi, Toothless!" he greeted when he realised the pair were with Jack.

"Hello, Arne," Jack returned the greeting with a warm smile. "What brings you by?" he asked once Hiccup and Toothless had also greeted the child.

"Can you tell us more stories?" Arne asked, brown eyes all but glowing with excitement.

Jack hummed thoughtfully for a moment, making an exaggerated thinking noise. "I dunno," he finally said with a sigh. "It's up to the boss," he said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at Hiccup. "If he thinks he can spare me for a little while, I'll tell you some more stories," he told Arne.

Hiccup didn't look impressed with Jack putting him on the spot but caved when Arne turned pleading eyes on him. "I need Jack to help me finish this street and the next one but once we're done, we'll both be free for a while," he told Arne.

Before the boy could do more than pout at having to wait, Jack spoke up again. "That means," he said, gaining Arne's attention, "you get to spend the twenty minutes it'll take us to finish up finding every child who wants to join you in story time," he told Arne, who lit up at the prospect of having an important job.

"I'll find them! Where do we go once I've found them?" Arne asked, eyes darting between Jack and Hiccup.

"The small paddock near the old well will be fine," Hiccup said before Jack could ask him.

"I'll tell everyone to meet us there! Bye, Jack! Bye, Hiccup! Bye, Toothless!" Arne called over his shoulder as he took off to find some of the children.

Jack laughed at the child's enthusiasm before he turned to Hiccup. "Guess we really do have a schedule to keep now," he joked.

Hiccup's flat look was worth the teasing. "The whole reason for not putting a time estimate on clearing the streets was so we didn't have a schedule to stick to," Hiccup reminded him.

"Whoops," Jack said, an innocent expression on his face that Hiccup didn't buy for a second.

Toothless chortled at the two of them before he used a plasma shot to melt a good-sized amount of snow. Hiccup nodded at his dragon. "We'd better keep going if we don't wanna disappoint the kids," Hiccup said, looking at Jack.

"Sure thing," Jack agreed as he directed the wind to scoop up a pile of snow and move it to the side of the street where it could melt without being in anyone's way. "Hey, so why can Toothless use his fire to help when the other dragons can't?" Jack asked.

"Toothless has plasma blasts, not typical fire or lava," Hiccup said. "While his shots can create an explosion, which could cause a fire, it only happens if he aims it at something like a house or ship. Otherwise, the snow contains the blast enough that it doesn't risk the houses or other objects close to it, so long as he keeps them in the middle of the street or they end up in a big snow drift," Hiccup explained.

"So none of the other dragons have similar blasts?" Jack asked as he continued working beside Hiccup and Toothless. They only had a couple more metres of this street to do before they'd start on the next one.

Hiccup shook his head. "No, none of them do," he told Jack. "Though there are plenty of dragons out there whose fire is different from, say, Monstrous Nightmares, who breath straight fire," Hiccup said.

"Well," Jack said as he directed the wind to move some more snow. "We've got just under twenty minutes to kill. Why don't you tell me about them?"

Hiccup grinned. "You asked for it," he said, voice warning and amused at the same time. "So, you already know about Night Furies, Hideous Zipplebacks, Gronckles, Deadly Nadders, Terrible Terrors, and Monstrous Nightmares, right?" he asked and Jack nodded. "Good. So let's start with Typhoomerangs. They're large dragons, bigger than…"

* * *

Both Jack, Hiccup, and Toothless touched down in the middle of the clearing that Hiccup had directed Arne to gather all the kids to and were greeted by excited chatter from all of them. Arne, Brenda, and Brant were sitting in the front once more and none of the kids seemed perturbed by the fact that they were sitting in the cold snow as they waited. Arne beat Brenda in greeting Jack, earning a pout from the young blonde but Jack made sure to greet all the kids he knew from yesterday and learn the names of the few he didn't know.

Once the greetings were done with and Jack promised all of them that, yes, he was going to be telling them a story and using his powers again, Jack turned to where Hiccup and Toothless were still standing behind him and raised a brow. "Are you going to join my audience?" Jack asked them, gesturing to the eager kids. "I can't guarantee you won't get caught in whatever abilities I show off if you stay where you are," he added.

Hiccup huffed at him but he did move, Toothless following close behind him. Once they were settled off to Jack's right and next to the kids there, Hiccup glanced at Jack. "Are you ready, oh, great storyteller?" he asked.

"Almost," Jack said as he took a couple of steps back and used the butt of his staff to sketch out the animals, people, and spirits he intended to use in this story as frost versions so he wouldn't have to pause in his storytelling to do so. Creating the last sketch, Jack made sure he had plenty of room in between himself and his sketches. "Before we get started, what do all of you," Jack gestured to the children, "say to a snowball fight after this story?" he asked. From the chorus of excited voices that sounded after he'd asked, Jack was going to say that they were happy with that plan. "Then that's our plan. Once this story is over, we'll have a snowball fight," Jack promised them before he turned to Hiccup and Toothless. "Now I'm ready," Jack told Hiccup, who rolled his eyes even as he grinned at Jack.

Returning the grin, Jack faced his main audience and clapped his hands together. "Now then, who here remembers my friend, Bunny?" Jack asked, bringing the first sketch to life. While no artist, he felt like he captured the image of Bunny well enough in the six-foot tall frost version. He made the frost version pull out his boomerangs and pose as though about to fight. Several of the kids called out excitedly. "This will be the story of how I first met him. It's called 'The Blizzard of '68'," he told them, a hint of dramatics in his voice, before letting the frost Bunny burst into snowflakes. One bonus of using the snow as his canvas rather than something like glass or metal was that his original sketch didn't disappear when the frost creation did. "But first, who would like to tell those amongst you who _don't_ know Bunny who he is?" Jack asked. Several hands shot into the air and Jack used his staff to point at one of the little girls and beckon her forward. "Inga?"

The little black-haired girl looked nervous but she seemed to take strength from Jack's encouraging smile since she soon addressed the group. "Bunny is one of your friends," she said, tone starting out soft before it grew in volume. "He wasn't very nice to you to begin with but he's now one of your friends. You said he was the Guardian of Hope so his job is keeping children's hopes up whenever they were feeling sad. He has a holiday of his own so he's really busy for a couple of months before it but then he's got lots of free time later. He lives in a big, magical warren that's filled with tunnels that help him get to wherever he wants in the world, so long as they believe in him. He's grouchy a lot of the time but he's a big softie underneath that grumpiness," Inga said, using as much of Jack's own words from the previous day's stories to help her sum up the irritable Easter Bunny as best she could.

"I couldn't have described him better myself," Jack told the young girl, giving her a beaming smile that caused her to flush with pride. "Why don't you go and rejoin your friends then I'll start the story?" Jack suggested. Inga nodded excitably before she dashed back to her spot and sat next to the same blonde girl she'd been sitting next to the previous day. Jack waited until Inga was completely seated before he began. "Now you all know that I'm about 320 years old," Jack started, earning gasps of disbelief from the children who hadn't been present at the last story session, "so this story took place," Jack thought for a moment, "around 45 years ago," he revealed, gaining amazed looks from the children.

"As the Spirit of Winter, my job is to help winter come along in places where it's needed. I can create snowstorms," Jack sent a flurry of snowflakes to weave through the children, "or I can create blizzards," Jack told them. "Some of my snowstorms look nothing more than the snow Berk got last night," Jack gestured to the snow around them, "while some of my snowstorms are quite harsh. The harshest and strongest of my snowstorms are called blizzards." With this, he had the wind ramp up the amount of snow it carried and how cold it was. He was careful not to freeze the children but wanted the dramatic effects. He called the wind off when it brushed up against Hiccup and Toothless and he'd earned himself a glare from both. "The stronger the snowstorm, the more energy I use," Jack told the children. "I don't like creating blizzards because sometimes they can be too strong and they can hurt places or people but blizzards are necessary in some places," Jack told them. He had to fight down the guilt that always appeared whenever he thought of the hundreds of deaths he'd caused because people weren't warned of an incoming blizzard in time.

"Now, another part of being a winter spirit means that when spring comes around," Jack created the frost versions of the typical spring animals he'd drawn, which included a rabbit, a deer, some birds, and a fox and let them run, fly, or hop around the children, "my job of spreading winter comes to an end," he continued, a soft smile on his face as he watched the children reach out for the animals. Hiccup and Toothless couldn't hide their intrigue with the frost bird that was flitting near them, "so I need to move on before it gets too warm for me," Jack told them. "In some places I can stay for a few days or even a couple of weeks before I really need to leave but in others I can only manage a day or two," he said. "My home is called Burgess and it's one of the places that stays cool enough after winter that I could stay for a couple of weeks, if I wanted to," Jack revealed.

"What's Burgess like?" one of the children asked before immediately being hushed by some of the other children.

Jack smiled at him. "Burgess is pretty big compared to Berk but in the country I'm from, Burgess is considered small," he told the curious child. "There's a lot of people living there and plenty of markets for them to buy things from. There's a huge lake just inside the woods and that's where I live," he said. "The lake is my home because that's where I first became Jack Frost and it's the one place in the whole world that's always there for me to return to." Hiccup and Toothless shifted as they both picked up on the slight morose tone in Jack's voice. "But that's enough about Burgess!" Jack exclaimed as the frost animals disappeared. "You want to hear about Bunny and how we met!" he said, looking at them all. An excited cheer met his words.

Jack grinned as he recreated the frost version of Bunny. "45 years ago, Bunny was getting ready for his holiday, which meant he was spending a lot of time in his warren," Jack told them as the frost version of Bunny crossed his arms and watched them all. "While he was doing that, I was getting the last of winter finished in the places where winter was ending. Mother Nature wanted me to go to some places around the world and give them a last snowstorm each," Jack told them, zipping around the clearing as though he was really going somewhere. "The last snowstorm I had to create was one that wasn't much worse than last night and I'd decided to head back to Burgess to spend some time at my lake before I had to find somewhere colder to go," Jack said, coming back to stand next to the giant frost Bunny, who was now crouched and painting something the children couldn't make out.

"Unfortunately for me, when I got back to my lake there were some spirits there who didn't like me very much," Jack revealed, holding both hands over two more sketches in the snow and bringing them to life. The creatures weren't very tall, heads not quite reaching Jack's chest, but their faces were screwed up in scowls and they each had a frost-fire in the palm of their hands. Hiccup wasn't sure if it was the fact that they were made out of frost that had them looking wispy or whether that was how they actually looked but he didn't bother interrupting the story to find out. If he weren't told alongside the children, he'd just ask Jack later. "There were four of them and they are what's known as Afarit," Jack said, his voice low and mysterious. "They're known as chthonic spirits, or underground spirits, meaning they normally don't come aboveground unless they need to. They're created out of smoke and fire and they are described as cunning and ruthless," Jack continued, making the frost Afarit disappear and reappear near the children, menacing looks on their faces. The children gasped in fright but Jack brought his frost Afarit back to his side.

"Now, Afarit aren't mean for no reason. Usually if they attack you, you had to have done something to them first," Jack explained, not wanting to give the children nightmares that Afarit were going to come for them in the middle of the night for no reason. "Now, you may ask, what did I do to them?" Jack said before he created a frost version of himself. "Did I attack them?" he asked, directing his frost-self to attack the Afarit. "Did I stumble across them doing something and interrupt them?" This time, he had the Afarit look like they were digging for something before his frost-self flew in and startled them. "Did I call one of them mean names?" he asked, having his frost-self silently do just that, making one of the Afarit cry dramatically and earning a few giggles from some of the children. "No, I didn't do any of that," Jack revealed. "What I had done was much worse in their eyes," he said, pausing for dramatic effect.

"My last snowstorm had happened over one of the tunnels they used to come aboveground when they needed to and my snowstorm had not only covered that tunnel with a thick layer of snow, but it had also done so on one of the rare times they came aboveground, meaning they had to melt the snow and dig their way out," Jack told the children. "They weren't happy about that so they'd decided to get revenge on me for what they thought was a mean prank," Jack said. "Since I hadn't been flying to get somewhere in a hurry, they'd managed to beat me to my lake so they could get their revenge," Jack explained.

"But you didn't do anything wrong! It was just a mistake!" one of the children – Leif, if Jack wasn't mistaken – cried out.

"I know I didn't but they didn't think it was an accident. I am the Guardian of Fun and I do enjoy pranking people," Jack reminded the boy, smiling softly at him. "After 270 odd years, I'd developed quite a bit of a reputation for being a trickster and the Afarit believed I had done it on purpose to play a joke on them," he told the children. "The four Afarit," two more soon joined the pair that were standing opposite the frost Jack, surrounding it, "didn't let me speak in my defence since they were so mad about what had happened. Instead, they'd started attacking me," Jack divulged before sweeping his staff over the five frost figures in question and having them play out a mock battle while the frost Bunny continued working on the side, having been forgotten about by most of the children.

"They used their smoke and fire to try and hurt me," Jack said as the Afarit took turns throwing frost-fire at the frost Jack, "but I was able to dodge them all with the wind's help," Jack said. "It even helped me clear the smoke away so I could see properly!" Jack exclaimed as he created the finest snow powder he could to create his version of smoke that the wind happily blew away, careful not to damage the frost figures. "I knew how cunning these spirits were so I thought I'd try and beat them at their own game," Jack said as he created a frost lake. "Just like I can't handle the heat, fire spirits of all kinds can't handle the cold so I decided to get onto my lake where I believed the Afarit wouldn't follow me." The frost Jack did just that, landing smoothly on the frost ice while the Afarit waved their fists at him. "What I didn't realise was how mad the Afarit were with me," Jack said in a hushed tone. "What they'd been going aboveground for had been destroyed in the time it took for them to remove the snow from their tunnel so they were really angry," Jack told his listeners.

Another sweep of his staff had the Afarit lob frost-fireballs at the frost Jack, who used his frost staff to hit the frost-fireballs away from him. "The Afarit were clever," Jack reminded them. "They kept their attack up on me, knowing that their fire would weaken me even if it didn't hit me," Jack said. "Once I was weaker, one of the Afarit slipped away without me noticing it and reappeared on top of the rocks that surround my lake." A wave of his staff had blue sparks creating the illusion of rocks behind the frost Jack that one of the Afarit stood on. The children gasped as they realised what was about to happen. "I didn't know they were there and I didn't know what was about to happen," Jack said as the children, Hiccup, and Toothless watched the frost Afarit create a large frost-fireball and send it straight at frost Jack's back. "However!" Jack exclaimed loudly, making several of them jump. "I had an ally the Afarit didn't realise I had! The wind realised what was about to happen and sent a gust strong enough to knock me over!"

At that exact moment, the wind – visible by some snowflakes it was carrying – knocked the frost Jack onto the surface of the frost lake, saving him from the frost-fireball sent his way. The children sighed in relief at the scene. "The Afarit weren't happy that I'd avoided their attacks and I wasn't happy that I was being attacked for a reason I hadn't been told," Jack told the children, making the frost versions of himself and the Afarit look annoyed and upset. "So I decided to put a stop to the fight until I'd found out," Jack said. The frost version of himself send a wave of icy wind towards the four frost Afarit, freezing their feet into place and earning a few claps and some laughter from the children. The real Jack gave them a bow, grinning as he straightened. "They weren't very happy about what I did but I used the time it took for them to melt through the ice holding them to ask why they were trying to fight me. One of them finally explained what had happened and I told them it had been an accident. I hadn't realised their tunnel was there or that there would be enough snow falling from that snowstorm to create problems for it." As Jack spoke, the frost version of him did so as well, gesturing with his staff and free hand.

"I asked them what they were looking for and they told me after a few moments of debating whether they should," Jack went on to say. "What they were after was a rare flower that only bloomed at the end of winter. It was used by the Afarit as a source of food and their crop underground had become sick so they were looking for more flowers to start a new crop. My snowstorm had buried the flowers and killed them," Jack told his audience. "Before the Afarit started attacking me again, I offered to make a deal with them. In exchange for their forgiveness, a description of the flowers and immediate ceasefire, I would keep an eye out for the flowers during the next winter and bring them some so they could regrow their crop," Jack explained. "They agreed to my terms and I promised them that I would leave the flowers once I'd found them at the tunnel I had accidentally filled with snow. With that all sorted, the Afarit left and I was able to relax," Jack said, making the frost Afarit burst into snowy powder while frost Jack slumped on the frost ice.

"What does that have to do with Bunny?" one of the children asked, sounding confused.

"Patience, my young friend. All is about to be revealed," Jack chided lightly, causing the newcomer to blush as the other children giggled at him. "Now, because the attacks from the Afarit weakened me as much as they did, I needed to recover and the best way for me to do so is to sleep in some snow," Jack told the children. Frost Jack was directed to move off the frost ice and lay down on the snow, pulling his hoodie up and cushioning his head on his arm. "Now, how long I have to spend sleeping depends on how badly I'm injured or how tired I am," Jack explained. "This attack had me sleep for nearly seven days straight but only because I was already tired from the last-minute snowstorms I'd had to create in rapid succession," Jack said before the children could ask why it took so long. "Now, another thing you should know about elemental spirits is that we have to release our energy somehow. In my case, I can do so by frosting things over, freezing things, creating snowstorms, or by using any of my other winter-related abilities," Jack explained.

"During the time I'd been sleeping and recovering, Bunny had been very busy preparing for his holiday," Jack said, gesturing to the frost Bunny who was still painting something the children could now see was an egg. "His holiday was right around the corner and he was excited about it. He wanted it to be one of his biggest and best holidays ever!" Jack exclaimed, a flash of guilt crossing his face before he turned and had his frost-self wake up. "The night before his holiday, I woke up from my sleep. Like I said before, elemental spirits need to release their energy as much as possible. The reason we do this is because if our energy builds up too much, it can cause us problems and once we do release it, it can burst uncontrollably out of us," Jack explained.

"Is that what happened to you?" Brenda asked, her eyes wide with worry.

Jack nodded. "It is," Jack told her. "When I woke up," the frost Jack stretched and yawned, "I realised I had too much energy built up inside of me and that I needed to find a way to release it. I knew it would result in something bad so I wanted to do it somewhere where there weren't a lot of people around so they wouldn't get hurt," Jack told the children. "Unfortunately for both me and Bunny, I didn't get too far." The frost Jack had started flying erratically away from frost Bunny but soon collapsed back onto the snow, earning small cries from the children. "I ended up having to let go of all the pent-up energy in one go and the best way I could do that was by releasing it into the sky," Jack explained just as he raised his own staff and released some dazzling blue sparks in a mimicry of what he'd done 45 years ago, gaining gasps of delight and whispered exclamations from several members of his audience. "Once all my excess energy was gone, I went back to sleep but this time, I only slept for a few hours." The frost Jack had laid back down on the snow while frost Bunny started hopping around in excitement.

"When I woke up early the next morning, I saw what had happened," Jack said, voice slightly sad. "I had created one of the worst blizzard's in the history of my home," he told the children. He barely noted the arrival of Astrid and Stormfly, who landed next to Toothless. "Bunny hadn't been able to leave the tokens of his holiday in any area that had been affected by my blizzard since the storm had kept children inside," Jack explained. Frost Bunny was now hopping around, ears flat on his head as he looked for something, a basket held in one paw while frost Jack got to his feet and looked around, regret on his frosty face. "Bunny found me before I could leave the area and knew I was to blame since no one else could create blizzards, let alone blizzards that big," Jack told them just as the frost Bunny approached frost Jack, an angry look on his face. "Bunny yelled at me for ruining his holiday and causing the blizzard," Jack explained, "and while I knew why it had happened, he didn't give me the chance to explain myself. I got mad at Bunny and yelled right back at him." The frost version of Jack did exactly that with the frost version of Bunny. Astrid was frowning at the real Jack but he didn't notice.

"Now, what I should've done was let him get his anger out of his system and explain what had happened but I didn't. After the Afarit, I was tired of spirits not letting me tell my side of the story so I had the wind push Bunny away from me," the wind helpfully re-enacted that scene with the frost Bunny, "so that I could leave." Frost Jack was lifted by the wind into the air before Jack dispelled the frost version of himself. "After that disastrous first meeting, I avoided Bunny as much as I could but on the rare occasions we did run into each other, he was still made at me for what happened. It was only after the events of last year that we ended up talking about it and I could explain my side of the story and apologise for what had happened all those years ago," Jack said, waving a hand at frost Bunny so he would disappear as well.

"Did Bunny say sorry to you as well?" Arne asked, brows creased in a concerned frown.

"He did, once he'd heard the events of what had led up to it," Jack assured Arne, who looked much happier now that he knew Jack hadn't not gotten an apology.

Finished with his story and ready to challenge the kids to the promised snowball fight, Jack turned to look at Hiccup, wanting to ask whether this would be a good place for a snowball fight but stopped when he saw that he and Astrid were having a not-so quiet discussion. Gesturing for the children to remain quiet, he winked at them before he started shamelessly eavesdropping on the pair of dragon riders.

* * *

Astrid had been flying on Stormfly, heading to try and find Hiccup to talk with him before she continued helping the village clear the snow off the streets. She'd already given the area that Hiccup, Toothless, and Jack were supposed to be working in a flyover and hadn't had any luck. Since she hadn't seen Toothless flying around the village, she knew they were still there somewhere but she was slowly running out of places to check for them. That was until she spotted blue sparks appear out of nowhere. Knowing there wasn't anything native to the island or in the Archipelago that could create blue sparks, Astrid knew it had to have been Jack. Since Hiccup and Toothless had been with the winter spirit, Astrid had Stormfly head for the sparks.

Just as she landed next to Toothless, Astrid heard Jack say, "I had created one of the worst blizzard's in the history of my home." As she half-listened to the winter spirit, she took in the children in front of him and remembered hearing about Jack's impromptu storytelling session the previous day and realised he was doing another one. Hiccup and Toothless glanced over to her and Stormfly but she paid them no attention. She wanted to hear what kind of excuse Jack would have for creating a blizzard as bad as he was claiming it had been. "Bunny hadn't been able to leave the tokens of his holiday in any area that had been affected by my blizzard since the storm had kept children inside," Jack explained to the children, showing no sign that he'd spotted Astrid or Stormfly. Astrid had to admit that to admit that the blue opaque rabbit and Jack Frost were interesting to watch, even if the size of the rabbit had to have been exaggerated. "Bunny found me before I could leave the area and knew I was to blame since no one else could create blizzards, let alone blizzards that big." Astrid's eyes narrowed as she took in the enjoyment on Jack's face. Had he really enjoyed destroying a fellow spirit's day? "Bunny yelled at me for ruining his holiday and –" Jack was saying but whatever else he was recounting was cut off by Hiccup.

"You here to enjoy Jack's stories or is something up?" the dragon rider asked, brow raised pointedly as he took in Astrid's displeased look. Considering what point in Jack's story she'd appeared; Hiccup didn't have to struggle to figure out why she didn't look like she was going to be any friendlier to Jack than she already was.

"I was looking for you," Astrid told him, looking mildly annoyed that Hiccup even suggested that she was there to listen to Jack. "I wanted to talk to you about getting the others together for a training mission since we aren't doing any hunting or fishing today," Astrid said before continuing, as though she'd anticipated what Hiccup had opened his mouth to say. "The village is nearly finished clearing the streets of snow. They won't miss us."

"Well, that's nice but not what I'd been about to say," Hiccup told her. He'd noticed out of the corner of his eye that Jack had finished speaking and was gesturing for the children to stay quiet while they obviously eavesdropped. "What I was going to say was that Jack has promised the kids a snowball fight once his story was finished," Hiccup said, "which appears to be now," he added, looking over at Jack, who looked completely shameless about having been caught eavesdropping, "and since Jack's under orders to stay in the company of a dragon rider or Gobber, I won't be able to be part of training anyways," he finished saying.

Astrid puffed up, likely to argue about how they could leave Jack with Gobber or he could stay wherever they would be training or whatever other argument she could come up with to convince Hiccup to come with them but she was cut off by Jack before she could. "You guys would be welcome to join our battle," he offered, gesturing to himself and the children. Hiccup was almost positive he saw a little, iridescent head peeking over Jack's left shoulder.

Astrid didn't quite sneer at Jack but Hiccup saw the urge there. "A _snowball fight_ isn't exactly the kind of training I had in mind," Astrid told him, a hint of derision in her voice before she turned back to Hiccup. Just as she went to say something – likely to try and convince Hiccup to join her, Hiccup thought – she was sent stumbling a step when a snowball hit her in the side of her face. Both Stormfly and Toothless let out noises of concern and confusion as Astrid straightened up.

Hiccup gaped at her as she wiped any clinging snow off her face and turn to glare daggers at Jack, who was looking incredibly pleased himself as he leant against his staff. The children looked half-delighted and half-terrified, torn between watching Jack and watching Astrid. "If that had been a weapon, you'd have been pretty badly hurt," Jack stated, a hint of smugness in his voice.

Astrid's blue eyes shown with a fiery anger and Hiccup swore he saw her fingers twitch towards her battle-axe but before he could move to stop her and/or have Jack apologise to the enraged blonde, Astrid smiled sharply. "I suppose you have a point," she said. To anyone who didn't know her, it may have sounded like Astrid really was conceding to Jack's point but to Hiccup, he knew she was likely plotting the ways she could kill Jack and get away with it. "I'll get the other dragon riders. We'll do this near where we used to go sledding," Astrid informed Hiccup before she climbed into Stormfly's saddle and took off without another word.

"Guess we're moving this party somewhere else," Jack said excitedly, glancing at the kids. "Do you guys still wanna have a snowball fight?" he asked them and got plenty of resounding cheers of agreement. "Okay. If you told your parents that you were going to be around this area, scurry off and tell them about the change of plans. We'll meet you in the village centre," Jack instructed before shooing the children away and laughing as they scattered.

"You are aware that Astrid is likely going to use this snowball fight as a cover to kill you, right?" Hiccup asked conversationally as he and Toothless joined the winter spirit.

Jack shrugged carelessly. "As long as she doesn't get her dragon to eat or roast me, I'll survive," Jack said with a concerning lack of fear, in Hiccup's mind.

"Your funeral," Hiccup muttered while Toothless crooned in agreement and watched Jack as though he was expecting Astrid to come flying back to deal with Jack at any second.

"Not likely," Jack joked, earning himself an eyeroll. "Come on, I'm not dead yet," he told Hiccup, jostling his shoulder. "Let's go wait for the kids. I have to come up with ideas to make this snowball fight both fun for the kids and dangerous enough to satisfy Astrid's desire for a training mission," Jack informed Hiccup.

"I'm sure it won't take you long, Guardian of Fun," Hiccup said, giving Jack a grin.

"The fun part of it? No time at all," Jack told him. "The training mission part? That might be more difficult," Jack said seriously, though his eyes twinkled with amusement.

"I have faith in you," Hiccup said, finally starting the walk to the centre of the village where Jack had told the kids to meet them.

Jack laughed. "At least one of us does."

* * *

Jack was standing surrounded by the village children as he watched Fishlegs and Meatlug join them, the pair having been the last to join them in the open snow-covered space Astrid had chosen for the snowball fight. Once Fishlegs was off Meatlug and had joined Hiccup and the others, Hiccup spoke up. "This is a training mission for us dragon riders, which means the children and Jack aren't involved in it," he said firmly, looking at both Astrid and Snotlout pointedly. "Jack's gonna stay with the children while we have a mock battle. Last one standing is the winner. If a snowball hits you where a blow from an enemy would be fatal, you're out. You can join the kids and Jack once you're out if you want. The dragons can't use their flames or fire – including Hookfang's full body flame up, Snotlout – but they can help defend us. They cannot use an offensive attack against a rider though. Think of it as training for a battle where your dragon is grounded and out of fire," Hiccup instructed.

Jack listened to all of this with one ear as he spoke to the children he would be playing with. "We're just going to have a normal snowball fight but you guys will need to be careful of the dragon riders and their training mission. We don't want anyone to be accidentally hurt because they didn't notice a dragon in their way, do we?" Jack said.

"No!" the chorused agreement echoed loud enough to earn Jack a glare from Astrid and Snotlout that the winter spirit ignored.

"Good," Jack smiled. "We're gonna wait to start the snowball fight until the riders have started their training mission _but_ ," Jack emphasised when a few children started whining, "that means you all get time to start setting up protective shelters and stocking up on ammo!" Jack told them, shooing them away from the dragon riders and dragons so there was a bit more distance between them.

The children had all cheered with Jack's instructions but they didn't get started constructing shelters or building ammo like Jack had thought they would. "Are we allowed to team up?" one of the children – Tora, Jack was quick to identify – asked.

"Of course," Jack said immediately. "Remember, this is a friendly battle. You can team up if you want or you can go it alone. Do whatever you want. This is supposed to be fun," Jack reminded them.

"So does that mean that there's no rules like what Hiccup gave to the dragon riders?" Brant asked.

Jack shook his head. "Nope! Doesn't matter where you're hit, you can't be out unless you want to have a rest. If you do, make sure that you sit down and cross your arms over your chest so that the others know you're taking a break and aren't allowed to attack you, okay?" Jack asked and received several nods in return. "Good! Now get started! We won't have long before the battle is officially started!" Jack told them and this time, the children broke off into groups, pairs or by themselves and picked spots to start building their protective shelters and ammo.

Jack chuckled before he glanced over his shoulder to check on the riders. Hiccup looked as though his patience was starting to wear thin as the twins kept asking question after question. Not envying him in the slightest, Jack didn't bother hiding his amused grin as he headed for the first group of children near him, who had spilt up their duties and were currently building a shelter and creating snowballs. After hearing the idea behind the structure, Jack waved his staff over the area in front of him and created perfect bricks of snow and snowballs for the children to make use of. Feeling a spark of delight and happiness at the children's genuine thanks and words of amazement, Jack moved onto the next group and repeated the process once he'd heard the ideas they had. He proceeded to do this for all the children, making sure the children who'd decided to not team up with others weren't at any extra disadvantage by giving them more snow bricks and snowballs than he did for the groups of children.

A roar and a curse got Jack's attention – and most of the children's, though they recovered quicker than Jack did and went back to work – and Jack found himself watching as the twins cackled, throwing the biggest snowballs they could manage at their teammates. Hiccup was being covered by one of Toothless' large wings as he crouched and started building as many snowballs as he could while Astrid had Stormfly mimic Toothless so she could do the same. Fishlegs wasn't able to be covered by Meatlug's wings so he was actually using the bulk of the dragon for cover. Snotlout and the twins weren't doing that. Instead, they were in a full war just between themselves. The twins actually had a good system of Tuffnut creating as many snowballs of as many sizes as he could while Ruffnut launched attack after attack at Snotlout before they switched roles. Snotlout was busy trying to dodge the attacks, create snowballs, and launch attacks of his own and it was easy to see his frustration build quickly.

Shaking his head at them, Jack decided to leave them to their training mission. Turning back to the children, he saw most of them had decent structures built and quite a good amount of ammo to start them off with. Smiling at them, Jack asked, "are you guys ready to begin or do you want a few more minutes?" he asked.

"A few more minutes please!" came the request before the cheers to start the fight could sound.

"Three more minutes," Jack instructed and the children upped their work ethic, trying to get their structures done and ammo created in those three minutes.

Jack used those three minutes by doing another round of the children and giving aide where he could so that they would be ready in those three minutes. He helped one group work through why their structure was falling down all the time and grinned proudly when they figured it out without too much prodding from Jack. There was a brush of feathers against the back of Jack's neck that told him that Baby Tooth was hunkering down in readiness for the upcoming snowball fight. She knew how hectic they could get, especially with Jack involved in them from the beginning. Jack huffed a silent laugh as he continued checking on the children while the final few seconds of his three-minute time limit ticked down.

"Alright!" Jack called, standing back in the same spot he had when he'd instructed the kids to get started prepping themselves. "Let's start!" Jack said, producing a snowball out of nowhere and lobbing it lightly at Brenda, who shrieked with laughter and dodged the projectile by the skin of her teeth.

That was all the encouragement the children needed and soon Jack found himself laughing breathlessly as he joined the children in the snowball fight. As he dodged attacks from the kids and returned some of his own, Jack felt a bubble of happiness grow in his chest that he realised he usually only felt when he was playing with Jamie, Pippa, and the other children of Burgess who believed in him. Even after a year of being a Guardian, Jack didn't have anywhere near the number of believers that North, Tooth, Sandy, or Bunny had had in their first couple of years. While he wasn't overly upset about it, that didn't mean everyone was as content as him and Jack had only recently stopped trying to prevent Jamie from trying to get him new believers somehow, having decided his first believer's stubbornness was stronger than his in this situation. Jack didn't feel any stronger than he had in his own time since the children of Berk didn't know and therefore couldn't believe in the legend of Jack Frost, even though they knew him but, to Jack, the fact that they saw him and obviously enjoyed spending time with him meant he didn't care that they technically didn't count as believers.

* * *

The snowball battle that Jack and the children were having went on for nearly twenty minutes before Fishlegs was joining them with a nervous smile. Jack gave him a warm smile before he nailed the Viking in the face with a snowball and led a charge against Fishlegs, who was quick to take advantage of the small pyramid of snowballs Jack created (he wasn't going to leave Fishlegs defenceless while he attacked him; he wasn't a monster, after all) and struck back, laughter eventually being coaxed out of Fishlegs as the hefty Viking let his sense of fun overrule everything else. They were quickly joined by the twins, who were pouting at the fact that Hiccup had disqualified them because Barf had started spewing gas. They weren't upset about the disqualification, just the fact that Belch hadn't been able to ignite the gas before they were. The twins were quick to fall into the fight with as much enthusiasm as the children and Jack was admittedly mildly surprised when they didn't try and cause any problems with insane ideas, like he'd half-feared they would after hearing all the stories about the twins from Hiccup.

"Reload!" Jack shouted as he flew over their battlefield, creating small pyramids of snowballs in random spots as he went and laughed as the children, Fishlegs, and the twins dived on them with uncontained delight.

Jack touched down just as Snotlout let out an angry shout as he was 'killed' by a lucky shot thrown by Hiccup. Jack spared him a glance but the dark-haired Viking didn't join him, the children, and his fellow fallen riders, choosing rather to sit on the sidelines and pout as Hookfang cleaned a wing, so Jack ignored him as he came into land and rejoin the fight, hitting Tuffnut in the side of the face with a snowball and nailing Ruffnut in the mouth with another when she started laughing at her brother. Jack stumbled when Arne managed to hit him with a snowball and his attention was put back onto the children, who were starting to gang up on him and the older Vikings with barely restrained delight.

Jack lost track of time as the snowball fight continued with no signs of it stopping anytime soon. Just as he was about to create a mild snow-screen, just to increase the difficultness of the fight, he was distracted by a voice talking to him. "Room for three more?" Jack abandoned his move to spin around and grin at Hiccup.

"For sure," Jack told him, eyes flicking to take in the less-than-impressed Astrid and even more less-than-impressed Snotlout. "It's a free for all, no rules snowball match. Only thing is that if someone is sitting on the ground with their arms crossed over their chest, it means that they're taking a break and aren't to be attacked," Jack said, giving the condensed version of his earlier rules to the children.

"Sounds like fun," Hiccup grinned, though it faltered when he realised that neither Astrid nor Snotlout had made any move to join the others.

"That's the point," Jack said cheekily as he raised the hand not holding his staff and created two snowflakes out of thin air.

Hiccup watched as the pair of snowflakes – which looked slightly bluer than normal snowflakes, in Hiccup's opinion – danced over Jack's hand before the winter spirit directed them to his two stubborn friends. Neither one of them were able to dodge the snowflake and Hiccup watched in fascination as the flakes landed on Astrid's and Snotlout's noses before they disintegrated immediately into faint blue sparks. But the most interesting thing was that both Astrid and Snotlout relaxed immediately, grinning at each other before they headed into the fray of children and missing teammates, gathering up snow as they went and laughing as they pelted their snowballs at the closest people.

"What was that?" Hiccup asked, watching Astrid and Snotlout acting like the children they were surrounded with. It wasn't a complete personality change. There were still signs of Astrid's competitive streaks and cunningness and Snotlout's inability to lose gracefully and over-the-top retaliations to successful attacks present as they kept lobbing snowballs with grins on their faces.

"Fun flakes," Jack said simply, shrugging a shoulder. "Helps people loosen up and enjoy themselves," he told the brunette.

"Yeah, I remember you telling Dad and I about them," Hiccup said, a hint of awe still in his voice. "I just didn't realise how literal you were being," he admitted.

Jack grinned at Hiccup's response. "Don't tell me I need to use one on you as well?" Jack teased, getting an annoyed but confused look. "I don't see you joining in," Jack said, gesturing to the ongoing snowball fight that seemed to have gained a new level of ferociousness now that Astrid and Snotlout were part of it.

"I don't think it's necessary," Hiccup deadpanned. "What about the dragons?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at the five dragons who were watching the massive snowball fight with longing looks.

"I got them," Jack assured Hiccup. There was sudden smirk in Jack's eyes as he noticed something that had Hiccup confused up until the moment a snowball exploded against his shoulder. Jack laughed as Hiccup glared venomlessly at Astrid. "Are you going to let that stand?" Jack asked, mock shock in his voice.

"Absolutely not," Hiccup growled playfully as he bent down to scoop up snow to create his own weapon to retaliate with against Astrid, who was watching Hiccup with a challenging glint in her eyes.

Jack laughed as Hiccup with quickly enveloped into the folds of the fight before he went up to the dragons. "Are you guys ready to join in?" Jack asked the five dragons, all of whom quickly turned their gaze to him and looked at him inquisitively. "I think it'd probably be fairer to everyone if you didn't use your fire or other attacks but you can certainly join in, so long as you don't accidentally squish anyone," Jack said, earning five offended looks for his trouble. He held his hands up in surrender. "I'm just saying," Jack defended himself before he got a familiar mischievous look in his eyes. "But let's make this interesting for you, shall we?" he suggested and got a 'let's see what you've got' look from Toothless.

"I'm going to have the wind stay calm enough down here but up there," Jack gestured with his staff to the open area above the battle, "the wind will be twisting and contorting itself to create different and changing currents that you'll have to fly through," Jack told them. He noted the disappointed look on Toothless' face and looked at the dragon sympathetically. "I'll be having the wind support you so you can fly, Toothless. We've just got to see if we can lock your tail in place," Jack said, frowning at the prosthetic before he looked over his shoulder to find Hiccup. Spotting him, Jack had the wind pull Hiccup towards him.

Once he realised what the buffeting from the wind meant, Hiccup scowled at the grinning Jack before he joined the winter spirit once more. "What?" he asked, half-curious, half-annoyed since he'd been about to attack Fishlegs.

"Can you lock Toothless' tail in place so that the wind has an easier time supporting him?" Jack asked. "I don't know enough about how the wind affects his tail and how Toothless would even use his tail to affect the wind for me to be comfortable enough trying to control the wind without risking Toothless getting hurt," he explained, which didn't clear up Hiccup's confusion in the slightest.

"Why are you and the wind supporting Toothless?" Hiccup asked even as he moved around the side of his excited dragon to lock the prosthetic in the position Jack wanted it.

"An extra challenge for the dragons since they can't use their flames or other attacks," Jack said before he explained it in more detail to Hiccup. "I'll be sitting out of the snowball fight since I don't think my concentration is good enough for me to split it between supporting Toothless and fighting you bloodthirsty lot," Jack said, smiling at Toothless, who cooed at him, not noticing the stunned look on Hiccup's face. "It won't be like he's flying by himself and it'll probably take me a little bit to figure out his cues so I can have the wind do what he wants but it should be fun anyways," Jack said, a hint of apology in his voice as he spoke to Hiccup, though he was looking at the dragon.

Because he wasn't looking at Hiccup, Jack didn't notice until Hiccup slammed into him that the brunette was about to wrap him up in a hug. The winter spirit grunted softly at the impact then again at the tightness of Hiccup's hug but before he could react to it, Hiccup was pulling away with a slightly apologetic look. "Sorry, I forgot you don't like being touched without being asked first but I couldn't stop myself," Hiccup said, startling Jack, who hadn't realised that Hiccup had noticed that. "I can't believe you figured out a way to help Toothless feel like he's flying without me! He hasn't had that for almost four years, not since our first Snoggletog together." Noting Jack's confused look and silent mouthing of the holiday name, Hiccup laughed. "I'll explain it later," he promised and Jack nodded.

"You don't have to thank me, you know," Jack said, shifting self-consciously. "It's wouldn't be fair if Toothless had to miss out on the fun when I could possibly do something to help him join in," Jack said.

Toothless and Hiccup looked at one another before Toothless approached Jack and nudged him in the side, startling the winter spirit, who looked at Toothless and Hiccup with confusion as Toothless nuzzled Jack's side. "He's thanking you as well," Hiccup told him, grinning when Jack's eyes widened in surprise.

Tentatively, Jack lightly scratched the top of Toothless' head in the same area he'd seen Hiccup do so multiple times before and earned himself a soft croon from the dragon. "You're welcome," Jack told the dragon before he cleared his throat and forced his emotions back down. "Right," Jack said, clapping his hands together and both Toothless and Hiccup watched the winter spirit. "Let's have some fun," Jack said, a bright grin in place as he pointed his staff towards the airspace above the ongoing snowball battle. Hiccup didn't see any obvious changes but Jack lowered his staff only a few moments later with a satisfied grin on his face. "It's ready," Jack told all the dragons. The four who could fly without aid roared in delight and took off so they could enjoy what Jack had set up specially for them.

Jack and Hiccup watched them as they hit the first twisting current of air and Jack grinned as he heard their playful chirps as the dragons tried to figure out the currents and found themselves being pushed around in ways they weren't expecting. Their delighted noises only made Jack's grin widen, especially when the children and other riders watched the dragons with amazement and amusement before an opportunistic child restarted the fight with a launched snowball. Satisfied that the dragons were enjoying themselves and weren't likely to be hurt, Jack turned to the remaining dragon and gave him an expectant look.

"You ready?" the winter spirit asked the Night Fury, who chuffed in agreement, looking eager as he danced away from Jack to give the spirit more room to move. "Okay. Remember, I don't know your cues so don't get too mad if I have the wind move you somewhere you didn't want to go, okay?" Jack reminded the dragon, who gave an impatient growl of agreement. Jack and Hiccup grinned Toothless before Jack aimed his staff at the space between Toothless' belly and the snow. "Here we go," Jack said before he held his breath as he had the wind start trying to lift Toothless into the air without the aid of the dragon.

It took a few moments – long enough that Jack and Hiccup both thought that Jack's idea wouldn't work – but Jack did manage to find the right amount of energy he and the wind had to put into lifting the dragon for it to happen. Toothless let out a surprised roar as he was lifted off his feet, wings spreading out to balance him instinctively before he roared in delight as Jack directed him over to the other dragons, who chirped in greeting, happy to see their friend join them in the air without his human on his back. Toothless could still use his wings to pull himself forward and dip in the direction he wanted to go, all of which made Jack's job of keeping him in the air and using the wind to maneuverer him all the more easier.

Jack kept his focus on the black dragon, helping him into the currents and doing his best to guess what the small signs Toothless were giving him meant but he did notice Hiccup moving up to his side, which was the only reason he didn't startle when Hiccup grasped his shoulder. "Thank you for doing this for him," Hiccup said quietly as he watched his dragon playing as much as he could with the other dragons in the wind currents. His guilt over Toothless' inability to fly by himself flared as it always did when he was reminded of how much Toothless missed out on because of his missing tail fin.

"It's nothing," Jack said, trying to deflect the gratitude as best he could so he wouldn't have to deal with the awkwardness he always felt whenever someone showed him honest gratitude or positive emotions.

Hiccup wasn't oblivious and he knew there was a reason Jack wasn't accepting his and Toothless' honest thanks but he decided it was a mystery that could be solved at a later date. Instead, Hiccup decided to smirk at Jack, who raised a questioning brow for a moment before his attention went back to Toothless. "It's a shame you won't be joining us in the snowball fight anymore," Hiccup sighed.

Jack frowned, though his eyes didn't leave Toothless. "Why?" he asked curiously. Sure, having a snowball fight with him was always fun – as Jamie and the other Burgess children had told him every time he visited them – but Hiccup had no way of knowing what he'd be missing out on since he'd never been in a snowball fight with Jack.

Hiccup's smirk deepened. "Because now I won't be able to kick your arse," Hiccup said, dodging out of the way of the retaliatory strike Jack tried to hit him with, using his free hand.

"As if that would've happened," Jack muttered at the still-laughing Hiccup. "Go away before I decide to see if I can split my concentration between your dragon and getting you with a snowball," Jack threatened. His eyebrow twitched when Hiccup only laughed harder.

"I'm going!" Hiccup assured the teen before he could follow through on his threat, backing away from him with his hands raised in front of him, grin still in place.

"Arse," Jack muttered, happy Tooth was around to hear him swear. The Guardian of Memories didn't like anyone cussing in her earshot but especially didn't like Jack doing it, claiming he was too young for that and ignoring his protests that he was over 300 years old. Jack focused back on the black dragon he and the wind were supporting, allowing the sight of the dragons having fun and the sound of the laughter brought on by the snowball fight to relax him enough that a soft smile of his own found its way on his face. The pride he felt at how much fun everyone was having because of him wasn't dampened in the slightest even as he tried to think of ways to bribe Baby Tooth into not telling her queen about Jack swearing when they were back in their own time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who left a comment on the previous chapter! I appreciated them all and adore them <3 please let me know what you think to this week's chapter :D and I'll see you all next week!


	7. Chapter 7

Jack had never been more grateful for the fact that he had 300 years' worth of memories and stories to tell than he was as he watched Hiccup and Toothless persuade the village children to leave Jack alone for the day. Since Hiccup didn't have the excuse of a snowed-in village to prevent him from helping Gobber out in the forge for the morning, that's where he had been. Jack had played with the idea of finding Fishlegs and spend some time with him but then he remembered the dragon rider telling everyone that he couldn't go with Astrid for the boar hunt she was leading that morning which meant he was busy and Jack probably shouldn't go and annoy him. Before Jack had been able to think of someone else he could find, he'd found himself surrounded by familiar and excited faces as the children of Berk asked him for more stories. With nothing better to do, Jack had obliged them, much to their delight and started telling them whatever stories had popped into his head. The kids had been nice enough to let Jack take a break from storytelling after three hours but after thirty minutes of them telling Jack stories, they'd asked him for more and for another two hours, Jack had done as they'd asked.

Hiccup had come out of the forge with Toothless on his heels about ten minutes into the story Jack had been telling. Jack didn't know whether Hiccup had sensed his exhaustion – as much as he loved the children and telling them stories, five hours was a long time to be doing so – or whether the brunette had needed Jack's help with something but once Jack had finished telling the kids about a pack of arctic wolves he'd met (complete with frost wolves), Hiccup had started shooing the children away, getting whines and arguments from them for his troubles. Toothless didn't bother giving his human a hand, choosing instead to watch as Hiccup struggled by himself as he stayed next to Jack's side. The winter spirit was positive that the dragon was only showing half of the amusement he felt and from the look Hiccup gave him, Jack was certain Hiccup knew it as well.

When the last child ran off to find their parents or something else to do, Hiccup joined the both of them. "You good?" Jack asked him as he watched Hiccup grab a rag he'd stuffed into a pocket and start wiping his face clean of the soot and sweat on it.

"Yeah," Hiccup told him. "Got any thoughts on what you want to do now that you're free of the kids?" he asked.

"Thanks for your help with that, by the way," Jack said, ignoring the first part of Hiccup's question. "I hate saying no to kids," he added with a slightly self-deprecating chuckle. "Can we go and do some more exploring today? Baby Tooth has been getting restless and it'd do her some good to be able to stretch her wings," Jack said, reaching behind his neck to give the aforementioned fairy a scratch.

Hiccup gave the hood Baby Tooth was hiding in an understanding look. "Sounds like a good idea to me," Hiccup said, grinning when he heard the tiny, excited squeak Baby Tooth gave in response. "I'll get us some food and we can head to the cove for lunch. Toothless can start a fire so we aren't eating raw fish," Hiccup said, grimacing slightly at the prospect of raw fish.

"That'll be good. There's some berry bushes in the grove, isn't there?" Jack asked and Hiccup nodded. "Baby Tooth can have some of those for lunch," he said. Jack had been delighted and surprised to learn that Baby Tooth could use some of her magic to ripen as many berries as she wanted, even growing them if the bush in question didn't have any berries on it when Hiccup had shown them some berry bushes the previous day at Jack's behest.

"Great," Hiccup said. "Let's get –" a roar above them cut Hiccup's words off and they both looked up to find Astrid and Stormfly heading for them. "Never mind. Let's find out what Astrid is after," Hiccup said instead, earning an amused huff from Jack.

Stormfly came into land gracefully but Astrid didn't bother dismounting, telling Hiccup this was only a quick chat. "What's up? How'd the boar hunt go this morning?" he asked his fellow dragon rider.

"Good," Astrid said, brushing some hair out of her eyes. "33 boars herded but we only culled 22 of them," she reported and Hiccup gave a nod. "I want to get the others together for another training mission once Fishlegs and I are back from fishing with the twins. A proper one, this time," she told Hiccup though she side-eyed Jack with a look that told him he still wasn't forgiven for using fun flakes on her and Snotlout the previous day. "I want us to head out further inland of Berk and split into teams so we can sharpen both our offensive and defensive skills," she explained.

"It's a good idea," Hiccup said, glancing at Toothless, who looked excited at the prospect. "It's been a while since we've done a training mission like that," he added. This time it was Astrid who started looking excited at Hiccup's words. However, her excitement dimmed when Hiccup sighed. "Gobber's too busy to keep an eye on Jack so I won't be able to join in. But you guys definitely should go ahead with this training! Maybe some of the A Team will be free?" he suggested.

"I can join you guys for training," Jack said before Astrid could say anything. Both dragon riders looked at him, one incredulous and one suspicious. Jack shrugged a shoulder. "It'd be a good way for me to learn about dragons and what to do if they attack me and that will come in handy when I figure out what the heck I'm supposed to be doing for Father Time," Jack explained.

"We're not going to just let you see what we're capable of and what our dragons can do," Astrid informed him coldly.

Hiccup rolled his eyes at the blonde and though he was tempted to do the same, Jack restrained himself. "He's not going to turn on us, Astrid," Hiccup told her, sounding mildly exasperated at the fact that he still had to. Astrid didn't look convinced. "Besides, if he doesn't join in on the training mission, someone will have to sit out on it to make sure we're still following Dad's orders," Hiccup pointed out.

Astrid didn't look impressed with Hiccup's words and for several moments, she seemed to be warring with herself about whether she should stand firm with her opinion that Jack shouldn't be included in the training mission. After enough time had passed that Jack and Hiccup gave each other worried looks, Astrid sighed. "Fine," she begrudgingly agreed. "If he uses what he learns this afternoon against us, it's on you," she warned Hiccup, who looked thoroughly unphased.

"We're going to be in the cove for a couple of hours so we can have lunch and so Jack can explore it. If you're back by then, fly over us and we'll join you," Hiccup instructed, deciding not to comment on her words of warning.

"Fine," Astrid said, obviously still not happy about Hiccup's decision to let Jack join them. "See you in a bit," she said before she had Stormfly take off, barely waiting for Hiccup to wish her luck on the fishing trip.

"I think she's warming up to you," Hiccup commented cheerfully as Stormfly and Astrid flew towards the docks. The incredulous looks Toothless and Jack levelled him with made it impossible for Hiccup to keep a straight face. "You'd better watch your back during training. I can almost guarantee that she won't choose to be on your team," Hiccup warned Jack once he'd managed to get his laughter under control.

"I think I would be more surprised if she didn't try and get me back somehow this afternoon," Jack commented lightly.

"So would I," Hiccup admitted easily before he shook his head, as though clearing it. "Come on. Let's go get ourselves some fish and head off to the cove before someone else decides to stop us."

* * *

Hiccup glanced skyward for what Jack was certain was the tenth time in the last three minutes, obviously keeping an eye out for his friends. Jack could understand why. It had been nearly three hours since he and Hiccup had spoken to Astrid about the training mission she wanted. Jack, Hiccup, and Toothless had long since enjoyed a fish lunch – cooked fish for Hiccup and Jack, courtesy of a fire created by Toothless and half a basket of raw fish for Toothless himself – while Baby Tooth gorged herself on some berries she'd magicked into existence. Once she'd napped off the food coma she'd self-induced, Baby Tooth had then explored every inch of the cove with an enthusiasm that Jack had rarely seen from her but then again, Jack supposed, it wasn't often that any of the tooth fairies stumbled across a place none of them had ever seen before.

"Any sign?" Jack asked as Hiccup looked back over at Toothless and Baby Tooth, who were playing together near the water. As far as Jack could tell, the two were playing a game of cat and mouse, with Baby Tooth acting as the mouse.

"No, not yet," Hiccup said. "They shouldn't be far off though. The fishing boats can't hold a lot of fish at one time and Astrid didn't mention anything about escorting more than one boat this afternoon," Hiccup told him.

"They're probably just unloading the fish now in that case," Jack told him, trying to reassure the Viking. Despite the way the majority of the village, most of the dragon riders, and Stoick still treated Jack, the winter spirit couldn't say that he wasn't starting to think of Hiccup as a friend without lying to himself. "They'll probably come flying over any minute now," Jack said.

"Yeah, I know," Hiccup said, glancing skyward once again before his eyes fell back on Baby Tooth and Toothless. There was silence for a couple of seconds before Hiccup broke it. "I haven't asked yet because I didn't want you to feel pressured or anything like that but have you thought of introducing Baby Tooth to the others yet? I understand that maybe she shouldn't be introduced to the whole village just in case but maybe to my dad and the other riders?" Hiccup asked.

Jack frowned as he watched Baby Tooth and Toothless and considered Hiccup's question. Even though the looks from the villagers that Jack still got – the ones that told Jack that the villagers were just waiting for him to turn against them – bothered him, Jack knew that, for the most part, the villagers weren't bad and that they probably wouldn't hurt Baby Tooth on purpose. He also knew that Stoick and the dragon riders were even less likely than the villagers to hurt the small fairy but what was stopping him was mainly Stoick's, Astrid's, and Snotlout's obvious mistrust of him. What would happen if they found out that Jack was hiding Baby Tooth from them?

Hiccup seemed to be either reading his mind or Jack's ability to control his expressions was worse than he thought it was. "I know you don't trust my dad still and you probably don't trust Astrid or Snotlout either. Fishlegs and the twins, you don't know them but they've not been as obvious with their mistrust as the others have so you're probably ambivalent about them and I get that," Hiccup said, turning to look at Jack, who was now alternating between looking at the ground and Hiccup as he spoke, "but I swear you can trust them," Hiccup told him, a slight pleading tone in his voice.

"I know I trust you far more than anyone else on this island," Jack admitted, sighing slightly. Hiccup looked mildly shocked that Jack had admitted that. "It's not like you've set the bar very high so don't look too shocked," Jack said, a half smirk on his face as he looked at Hiccup. "It's just – Baby Tooth is my friend. She's the only true friend I have with me from when – er, _where_ I'm from," Jack said, hastily corrected himself and hoping Hiccup hadn't caught it. "I don't want anything to happen to her," he continued, watching the fairy lightly tap the dragon on the nose before she squeaked in delight as she twirled out of Toothless' reach before he could retaliate. "I know she's tough. Her kind has to be to undertake the roles they do," Jack said, "but she's never come up against anything as dangerous and unknown as dragons. Neither have I for that matter. But it was my fault she was brought here with me so it's my job to make sure she gets back home safe and sound," Jack said firmly. "If that means keeping her hidden from everyone bar those I trust than that's what I'll do," he told Hiccup, voice filled with conviction.

"I understand what you're saying and I don't want you to think I'm ignoring your opinion," Hiccup said, voice cautious, "but shouldn't you ask Baby Tooth for her opinion?" Hiccup asked, eyes flicking between Baby Tooth and Jack. "If it was me with Toothless, I wouldn't be able to keep him hidden away – for his own safety or not – without his say-so," Hiccup said. "It wouldn't be fair to him for me to do that without his permission," Hiccup told Jack.

Jack groaned in annoyance. "I know it's not fair to her," Jack sighed, running a hand through his hair, "and that I should ask her what she wants to do but it's hard. She's a lot more trustworthy than I am and though she is in no way naïve, I'm worried that she might put her trust in the wrong person and I won't be there to help her," Jack said. "I am also fully aware of how silly that sounds considering it could happen anywhere, not just here, but that's the core of why I don't want to introduce her to everyone," Jack told Hiccup, leaning back on his hands as he sighed and continued watching the dragon and fairy play together.

"You're right," Hiccup said, a smirk forming, "that does sound silly," he teased, earning an eyeroll from Jack. "But, on the other hand, I do understand where you're coming from," Hiccup told the winter spirit. "However, I will stand by my original points: you can trust me when I say you can trust Dad and the other riders with Baby Tooth's existence and it should be Baby Tooth's decision whether she meets everyone else," Hiccup said. "I won't push you to listen to me though. I'll leave that completely up to you," Hiccup promised.

"Thanks," Jack said, relieved that Hiccup wasn't going to try and push Jack into doing as he said. A loud and sudden roar sounded above them, catching the attention of the four of them immediately. Both Jack and Hiccup looked up in time to see Meatlug, Stormfly, Hookfang, and Barf and Belch fly over the top of the cove. "Guess that's our cue," Jack said with a chuckle as he climbed to his feet, using his staff to haul himself up. "I will ask Baby Tooth what she wants to do," Jack told Hiccup, "and I won't stand in her way if she wants to be introduced into everyone but if she doesn't…" Jack trailed off but Hiccup figured he knew what he'd been about to say.

"I'll respect her decision and if she decides that Toothless and I are the only ones in Berk she wants to meet then no one else will find out about her from me," Hiccup promised easily as he got to his own feet. He tried hard to not feel offended when Jack sighed in relief but he didn't quite manage it. "Come on," he said, gesturing upwards where the other riders had just flown overhead. "Let's not give Astrid a reason to be mad at both of us."

"You're hilarious," Jack deadpanned even as he summoned the wind and had it lift him up, going slow enough that Baby Tooth could zip into his hoodie and hide herself once more.

"I know," Hiccup said with a laugh as he climbed into Toothless' saddle and had him launch into the sky so he and the dragon were level with the winter spirit. "Race you!" he called before he and Toothless took off in the direction the other dragons had flown in.

"Cheater!" Jack called, voice bubbling with laughter even as he followed the dragon rider and his dragon.

* * *

"This is how this is going to work," Astrid said the moment Jack, Toothless, and Hiccup joined the other dragon riders in the field they'd landed in. Fishlegs shot Hiccup a terrified look when the brunette didn't make any move to take over the training mission outline and Jack found himself silently vowing to find out why the portly teenager looked like Astrid was about to describe the ways she was going to kill them. "We're splitting into two teams. Fishlegs and the twins are with me. Hiccup has Snotlout and Jack," Astrid informed them, side-eyeing Jack in a way that had the winter spirit feel a chill of fear run over his spine. "Both teams will be working to take the other team out. First team to lose all team members will be the losing team. Dragons can use anything and everything in their arsenal, as can the dragon riders and Jack, with the exception of weapons against team members. Weapons can be used to remove an obstacle, however." Astrid didn't look happy about allowing that and Hiccup had a feeling she only did so that she wouldn't have to listen to him arguing with her about the unfairness of that decision. "Only rules around attacks are that the dragons can't lethally injure someone and Jack isn't allowed to freeze anyone," she told them before she reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a bunch of smaller bags.

"What's that?" Snotlout asked, earning an annoyed glare from the blonde.

"Our weapons," Astrid told him, tone telling the black-haired teenager that she wasn't impressed with being interrupted. She went around the group and handed everyone, including Jack, a bag. "They're paintballs," she announced even as they opened their bags to have a look.

"Like what we used to mark the dragons with when the Screaming Death was destroying their islands!" Fishlegs exclaimed, holding a paintball that dripped excess orange paint onto his hands.

Astrid nodded, holding up her own dark blue paintballs. "Exactly," she said. Jack took in his own light blue paintballs and noted that Hiccup had red ones. "You all have six each so make each shot count. You're out if you're hit somewhere that would fatally hurt you or would be a devastating enough injury that in a real fight, you wouldn't have been able to continue," she explained. "The same rules apply to the dragons. If your dragon is hit in a fatal place, you must land and try to continue your fight on the ground while your dragon stays out of the fight. If you're hit fatally, your dragon can continue the fight by themselves but you can't help your dragon in anyway. Hiccup, that means you can't help Toothless fly if you get taken out," she told him, not looking away until Hiccup acknowledged her words with a nod. Snotlout was complaining about having yellow paint to the twins while the twins were crowing about the green paint they both had. Apparently it reminded them of Loki. "Any questions?" she asked, looking around at them all.

Fishlegs timidly raised a hand. "How long will this training mission go for?" he asked.

"Until one team is dead," Astrid said immediately. Fishlegs didn't look happy about that answer but he didn't raise an argument either. Astrid once again pinned everyone with a look, trying to see if someone had a question but was too scared to ask it. Satisfied there wasn't anyone trying to pretend like they didn't need to ask her for clarification on anything, Astrid nodded. "The training will start in two minutes," she told them. "That should be more than enough time to find a good place to prepare ourselves," she said.

"Sounds good to me," Hiccup said, climbing back into Toothless' saddle. His actions seemed to have been the cue every other dragon rider had been waiting for since they were quick to copy him. "Two minutes," Hiccup said, nodding to Astrid, who nodded back.

"Starting now!" Astrid decreed. "Fishlegs, Ruff, Tuff, follow me!" she ordered, letting Stormfly take off the moment she'd done so. The twins and Fishlegs quickly followed her, though the twins were yelling suggestions to Astrid for plans of attack, heedless to the fact that Hiccup and his team could still hear them.

"Let's go find somewhere more defensible than this," Hiccup said, nodding to both Jack and Snotlout.

The other dragon rider huffed but Hookfang was quick to follow Toothless while Jack made sure to keep a good distance between himself and the Monstrous Nightmare. He hadn't quite gotten over the panic attack Hookfang and Snotlout had almost induced during Jack's first boar hunt on Berk just yet. Jack knew Hiccup had noticed this behaviour but Jack pretended to be oblivious to Hiccup's questioning look as they continued heading away from the clearing they'd received the mission briefing in.

"Where are we even going?" Snotlout asked barely a half minute into their flight.

"The caves in the cliff up ahead," Hiccup told him, pointing to the large cliff-face growing rapidly closer. "None of those caves have an exit on the other side of the cliff so they won't be able to sneak up behind us but most of them connect to one another. We can use those tunnels to move around if Astrid and her team find us first," Hiccup explained. "Jack will act as our lookout since he's the most inconspicuous of us, him not having a dragon and all," Hiccup said.

"That's a dumb idea," Snotlout declared. "We should just turn around and try and find their hiding place," he told Hiccup. "Then we can take them by surprise and win this stupid training mission," he said, tone almost sulky.

"Except that's what Astrid will think our plan is and she'll prepare for it," Hiccup told him just as the caves were within reach. Toothless landed gently in one while Hookfang clung to the side of the cliff beside it. "She'll expect you to rush off to find them while Jack and I follow to try and stop you. They'll have an ambush planned out for us," Hiccup said. "What we're going to do instead is lure Astrid and her team into an ambush of our own," Hiccup told Snotlout and Jack, a sly glint in his eyes.

"How? Astrid isn't stupid. She won't fall for something dumb," Snotlout said, arms crossing in front of his chest as he sat in Hookfang's saddle parallel to the ground. Jack wanted to ask how in Manny's name he was doing that without seeming affected by gravity but elected to leave it a mystery for now as he continued to hover just outside the cave Toothless had landed in.

"Jack's going to be our bait," Hiccup announced and Jack felt his mouth gape open.

"Excuse me?" the winter spirit asked, eyes narrowing at Hiccup, who looked completely unphased by his glare.

"We need someone to lure them in," Hiccup said. "Snotlout is too much of a risk-taker and would likely wind up caught by them. I can't because then it'd be obvious that we're trying to lead them into a trap since Toothless is the fastest dragon in the Archipelago so going slow enough that they won't lose us would tip them off long before they reached our trap," Hiccup explained. "You're the only other option we have. Plus, without a dragon, you'd be less likely to be seen, you can use the leaves to warn you of danger and you told me and Dad that you were fast and agile. You shouldn't have any trouble evading them while also making sure they spot you and leading them back here where Snotlout and I will be waiting," he told Jack.

"You're just trying to give Astrid her chance to get me back without you or Toothless being in the firing line," Jack accused, staff pointing at Hiccup.

The brunette didn't bother denying it. "Make sure that when you've got them following you that you lead them into this cave," Hiccup instructed.

Jack rolled his eyes but nodded. "Fine," he grumbled before he tapped the cave with his staff, letting frost curl up around the rocks and dirt there. "So I know which cave to go for," he explained when Toothless made a curious noise.

"Won't it melt before you get back?" Snotlout asked, looking up at the clear sky. "Seems like a dumb thing to do to me," he said with a shrug.

"It won't melt until I let it," Jack told him. He didn't bother to explain why that was.

Hiccup simply nodded at the frost. "It's probably been two minutes," he told Jack before making shooing motions with his hands at the winter spirit. "Good luck with your hunting," he said with a grin.

"'Good luck trying not to get killed' is what you meant to say," Jack muttered loud enough for the dragons to hear him but for their humans to be left in the dark. "I'll be back soon and likely with a bunch of angry dragons and dragon riders on my tail. You'd better be ready," Jack said threateningly.

"We will be," Hiccup assured him, eyes earnest.

"Good," Jack said as he let the wind pull him away from the cave mouth. "See you in a bit," he said before he zoomed off, heading back towards the clearing everyone had been gathered in only a couple of minutes ago. He didn't notice Hookfang crawl his way into Toothless' cave like a lizard or his four teammates disappear into the cave as he headed for the tress, ready to use his leaf-speak ability to his full advantage.

* * *

Jack had to give Astrid her due. Even with the twins doing the exact opposite of being stealthy, making Jack's job of finding the group much easier even with the help of the leaves, she managed to get far too close to him for Jack's comfort. It was only thanks to the leaves belonging to the tree behind Jack urgently impressing a warning of danger on him that he managed to get out of the way of the spines that Stormfly shot at him. He heard Astrid curse as he disappeared up the tree and flung himself into the next one, hooking the crook of his staff over a branch so he could swing himself up onto it in hopes of confusing the blonde dragon rider a little more.

"Good shot!" Jack called, making sure he was loud enough to attract the attention of the twins and Fishlegs, the latter of whom had been silently waiting a few trees ahead for Astrid to push Jack towards him.

"I didn't get you so it wasn't that good," Astrid growled, pulling Stormfly away from the tree Jack had originally been on and taking her lower to the ground so the dragon could move easier.

"Maybe you'll get lucky next time," Jack said, crouching on the thin branch he'd landed on as he concentrated on what the leaves were telling him. The twins were above the trees – not that Jack needed the leaves to tell him that since he could hear the pair – while Fishlegs was still in the same position as he had been before, craning his neck upwards to try and find Jack. Astrid, according to the leaves, was having Stormfly slowly make her way through the trees near ground level as she also searched for Jack.

Jack held himself perfectly still. His job was to lure the others to where Hiccup and Snotlout were hiding and preparing an ambush which meant he had to time his 'escape' perfectly. Too soon and he'll be captured or 'killed' by one of the members of the other team. Too late and he'll have to try and lure them again which would likely tip at least Astrid and Fishlegs off to what he was trying to do. A noise below him caught his attention and Jack leaned forward, careful not to rustle any of the leaves around him, and watched as Astrid and Stormfly flew underneath the tree he was in. The large blue and yellow dragon was mimicking her human and looking around for Jack but he shuffled back, letting the thicker branches at the base of the tree aid him in hiding. Jack barely breathed as he watched Stormfly and Astrid pass under his tree and continue heading away from him.

Grinning, Jack straightened from his crouch and headed straight up through the tree leaves. Breaking through them, he found himself face to face with the twins and their dragon. Both Ruffnut and Tuffnut looked mildly surprised to find Jack in front of them. "Hey, shouldn't you be hiding?" Tuffnut asked.

"Yeah," Ruffnut said, eyes squinting at Jack. "Why are you up here? That sounds like something we would do," she said, gesturing to her and her brother.

"And we're not the smartest," Tuff said, nodding his head as though he'd said something wise, "which means you must be pretty dumb," he added with an air of confidence. Ruffnut was nodding in agreement with her brother's words.

"You might have a point," Jack said, nodding once as he hovered in the air, the wind gently buffeting him as it supported him. "Guess we'll find out," Jack said, swinging his staff up and firing a bolt of ice at the pair, making sure it went straight between Barf and Belch's heads so it wouldn't hit them or the twins, making the dragon roar in shock.

"HEY!" Tuffnut yelped as Barf and Belch dove slightly in response to the shot. "That was a cheap move!" he shouted at Jack, who was moving backwards from the pair and the irked dragon.

Jack heard the sound of two dragons approaching and knew his time was up. Saluting the twins, Jack had the wind pull him back towards his team's hideout. He didn't bother glancing back to see if he was being followed since the wind was pulling leaves up to him who were assuring the winter spirit that he had three dragons on his tail. The green paint bomb that went sailing just past his head, making Jack pause momentarily so he wouldn't be hit, confirmed what the leaves were saying.

"Hiccup and Snotlout had better have something planned for this lot," Jack muttered to no one in particular but grinned when Baby Tooth squeaked an agreement from inside his hoodie.

The retreat continued with Jack nearly getting hit twice more, once by an orange paintball and once more by a green one but he never got marked thanks to the leaves and wind warning him. He had to swoop low and get into the trees a couple of times to force his pursuers to back off of him when they got a little closer than Jack was comfortable with. Once he was certain he'd gotten a better distance between him and the others, he popped back up out of the trees just so he could be certain they wouldn't lose him while he was in the trees.

The plan worked perfectly. Jack managed to lead them to the cliffs and disappeared into the cave that was marked with his decorative frost. Once he'd passed it, his frost melted instantly so that it wouldn't act as a tip-off to those following him. He headed further into the cave, noting the fresh scratch marks on the walls right next to turns and following them. He kept his eyes peeled for any traps, not wanting to be caught in them. He finally found Hiccup, Toothless, Snotlout, and Hookfang in a surprisingly large cave and not looking surprised when he turned up.

"Everything set up?" Jack asked as he landed lightly on a rock next to Toothless.

"Yup," Hiccup told him, gesturing to a few ropes that were tied near them.

"How'd you know it was me coming and not one of them?" Jack asked curiously.

"The wind felt too cold for it to be anything other than yours," Hiccup answered with a shrug. "How far behind you were they?" he asked the winter spirit.

"Not far," Jack said, screwing up his face in thought. "Maybe half a minute," he said. "They'd have to slow down in these caves though," he added as an afterthought.

Hiccup nodded in agreement before he turned to Snotlout. "You ready?" he asked the other teenager, who was gripping three ropes of his own.

"Ready," Snotlout said, a competitive glint in his eyes. "But I still think this idea is stupid and that we should've just gone after them straight away and ambushed them," Snotlout said.

"Noted. Stick with the plan," Hiccup said, eyes not leaving the cave opening.

Jack snorted at the irritated look on Snotlout's face as he readied his own weapons by pulling the bag he'd tied around his waist so that the bag was sitting on his right hip and would give him easy access to the paintballs. Switching his staff to his left hand, Jack reached into the bag and grabbed one of the paintballs so he had it at the ready for whoever came through the cave opening first.

To probably no one's surprise, Barf and Belch were the first to appear, only proceeded by the shouts of victory by the twins themselves, which meant they were the first ones to be splattered with two different colours of paint, Snotlout pulling on his ropes and Jack lobbing the paintball he had. "You killed us!" Tuffnut gasped, looking thoroughly shocked that they'd been taken out first. Barf and Belch both had paint splattered along their neck and right in the centre of their chest while the twins both had paint splattered on their chests.

"Sorry," Hiccup said, giving them a helpless shrug even as he gripped his own ropes, ready to pull them down on the next dragon to enter the cave. Toothless gave a coo that was barely heard over the sound of the twins arguing with each other about whose fault it was that their 'brilliant' plan hadn't worked and Hiccup stiffened. "Scatter!" he ordered, dropping his ropes, and urging Toothless to take flight.

Hookfang didn't wait for his rider's orders; he took off after Toothless with Jack barely able to keep himself in between the two dragons, using them as his cover. They barely managed to get out of the cave and into a tunnel when Astrid and Stormfly burst in through a second opening and Fishlegs and Meatlug came in through the opening Barf and Belch had been 'killed' in. Both riders had paintballs at the ready but they didn't get the chance to use them as by the time they'd gotten into the cavern, Hookfang's tail had already disappeared into the tunnel Hiccup's team had escaped into.

"How'd you know?" Jack asked once he'd drawn level to Toothless, who was using the stalactites and stalagmites in the tunnel to make his way through rather than flying, since the tunnel was too narrow. Hookfang was in a similar situation and was using his massive wing hooks and lizard-like crawling abilities to make his way through the tunnel.

"Toothless sensed them," Hiccup told him. "We're gonna have to use Plan B, Snotlout!" Hiccup called behind him.

Jack was tempted to ask what Plan B was, especially when Snotlout gave a whoop of excitement, but decided to leave it and let himself be surprised. They finally saw sunlight in front of them and the dragons redoubled their efforts to get through the tunnel without being hit. Toothless used the stalactite he jumped on close to the entrance to spring himself forward enough that he managed to break out into the sunlight, unfurling his wings just as he cleared the tunnel and getting himself and his rider into the air with broad, heavy sweeps of his wings. Jack turned around once he was out of the tunnel to find Hookfang mimicking a lizard once more and clinging to the side of the cliff, right above the cavern's mouth. Snotlout had two paintballs in his hands and was holding them at the ready, a gleeful expression on his face as he waited for his prey.

The prey wound up being Fishlegs and Meatlug, who'd barely flown out of the tunnel – Meatlug's minimalistic wingspan meaning she could fly through the tunnels with ease – and Fishlegs gave a cry of despair, hurling the paintball he'd had ready in his hand out of shock, as both he and his dragon were hit in the back of their heads with paintballs. "Oh, yeah!" Snotlout crowed as he pumped his arms in victory. "That's what you get! Snotlout! Snotlout! Oi, oi, **OI!** " the black-haired teenager yelped as he was pushed forward in his saddle by the force of the blue paintball that hit him in the back of his head.

The newly dead Viking didn't even get the chance to order Hookfang to avenge him when Astrid nailed the red and black dragon with a paintball. "How many times do we have to tell you not to celebrate your victory too early? It might end up getting you killed one day," Astrid called with a smirk as she and Stormfly showed themselves in the cave above Hookfang's chosen bit of cliff-face to cling to.

"'It might end up getting you killed one day'," Snotlout repeated mockingly as he tried to wipe the wet paint off his helmet. Another blue paintball hit him in the chest and he glared at the now-airborne Stormfly and Astrid.

"Whoops," the blonde said unconvincingly, shrugging her shoulders innocently before she latched her sights onto her two remaining enemies.

"Follow us," Hiccup whispered to Jack, who barely got more than a nod in before Hiccup and Toothless took off.

Jack immediately headed after them, asking the wind to carry him as fast as it could while Astrid and Stormfly followed them, a vengeful glint in Astrid's blue eyes. Jack knew even without the leaves telling him that the defeated members of the dragon riders were also following, likely out of curiousity to see who the winner would be. Hiccup and Toothless led Jack through the trees, Toothless using his speed and slimmer build in comparison to Stormfly to his advantage, twisting his way through the trunks while Astrid was forced to keep Stormfly following at a steadier pace so that they didn't accidentally run into a tree or something.

Jack quickly realised that Toothless was slowing down just enough for Jack to be able to catch up, a clear indication that Hiccup had a plan. Eager to hear it, Jack sped up and soon found himself level with Hiccup as he and Toothless continued flying through the trees. "You got a plan C?" Jack asked and Hiccup nodded. "Plan on sharing it?" Hiccup's grin was all the answer Jack needed to know he was about to have to split his focus between not hitting a tree and listening to his team leader.

* * *

Astrid was keeping her eyes peeled for the slightest hint of a dragon and/or anything blue as she and Stormfly continued their search for the last three members of the opposite team. Though her plan hadn't happened as well as she'd hoped – mainly due to the twins deciding not to listen to her – she was confident that she could still win this and finally claim a victory over Hiccup and Toothless. Plus, she had to admit that the idea of getting Jack in the face with a paintball the same way he got her in the face with a snowball the previous day was certainly enticing.

Stormfly gave a low squawk as she focused on something ahead and Astrid brought her attention back to the task at hand rather than the victory she could almost taste on her lips. She stayed low on Stormfly, using her dragon's spiney frill as a means to keep herself safe should an ambush happen. Whispering to her dragon to be as quiet as possible, they both came to a stop in the tree line of a small clearing. Stormfly was able to perch on one of the thicker branches, meaning they would be concealed a little better than they would've been had Astrid had Stormfly land on the ground. Astrid's keen eyes scoured the area in front of them, knowing her dragon had spotted something of interest when she saw a flicker of red in the tree line beyond them. She grinned to herself as she realised it was Toothless' tail prosthetic.

"Good job, girl," Astrid whispered, patting Stormfly on the side of the neck. The dragon gave a low trill of happiness at the praise.

Astrid kept watching the spot where the flash of red had appeared but didn't see anything else, even after a minute of waiting. She hissed an annoyed sigh out from between her teeth and concluded that she'd just given Toothless, Jack, and Hiccup a minute's head start on her. Just as she was about to give Stormfly the order to take off, something else flickered near the tree line of the clearing and caught her eye. Watching it fervently, Astrid quickly spotted it again and realised it was blue, not red. That could only mean it was Jack making his way from tree to tree, likely trying to set up an ambush spot to try and get her.

Smirking to herself, Astrid watched as Jack settled himself on a tree branch that barely concealed him and almost laughed when she noticed he was facing the wrong way. Instead of facing her direction, he was turned so he was looking off to Astrid's left. The winter spirit – obviously unfamiliar with the woods – must have gotten himself turned around a little. She didn't know where Hiccup and Toothless were but considering neither of them appeared to correct Jack and she hadn't seen any hint of the Night Fury or his rider, Astrid surmised that they were likely up ahead, waiting as a second trap just in case Jack failed in his role.

"Let's go surprise the winter spirit, shall we?" Astrid asked her dragon, who gave a small bob of her head before she took off lightly, moving back the way they'd come before turning to the right.

Astrid made sure to keep Jack in her view as much as possible as she and Stormfly weaved through the trees as stealthily as possible as they snuck up on the unexpecting winter spirit. It took them several seconds longer than Astrid would've liked to get within striking distance of Jack – who hadn't moved an inch as he watched for her unblinkingly – but that was the price she and Stormfly had had to pay in order to get this close to Jack without alerting him to their presence. Astrid could feel the thrill of excitement at catching her prey run through her and with a silent signal to Stormfly, she watched as Jack leaped backwards with a yelp, pressing against the tree trunk as Stormfly's spines buried themselves into the branch where Jack had been crouching.

The winter spirit spun around almost comically as Stormfly loosed another volley of tail spines. None of them hit their mark since Jack moved far quicker than Stormfly or Astrid anticipated but the blonde wasn't that upset with it since the spines had done their job. They'd forced Jack out into the open rather than leaving him with the chance of using the tree trunk as cover. Throwing the third last of her paintballs, Astrid growled when Jack moved upwards quick enough that the blow was only to his thigh. Since it wasn't an immediately fatal injury, even to a normal human, Jack was still in the game and it looked like he was intent on getting away from her.

Not willing to let that stand, Astrid was quick to nudge Stormfly upwards so they could follow the winter spirit. Looking back on this moment, Astrid would admit to only herself that she really should've expected what had happened next, which was one paintball to Stormfly's neck and one paintball to her own chest, courtesy of Hiccup and Jack, respectively. Stormfly let out a disappointed squawk as Astrid glared at the grinning Hiccup. Toothless, who was hovering to Astrid's left, looked pretty pleased with himself, as did Jack, who had drifted over to Hiccup and Toothless' sides.

"Good job," Astrid begrudgingly said as she tried to wipe as much of the paint off her shirt as she could before it dried. They'd found out exactly how hard it was to get out of clothing after their day spent tagging wild dragons and she certainly wasn't looking forward to repeating that.

"Same to you," Hiccup said as he had Toothless head for the clearing, Jack following close behind them.

To Astrid's lack of surprise, the other members of the dragon riders were waiting in the clearing in all their paint-splattered glory. "Aw man, you lost?!" Tuffnut exclaimed when he spotted Astrid and Stormfly's paint-marked selves. Whatever else he'd been about to say was stopped by an extremely powerful death glare from Astrid.

"Good job, everyone," Hiccup said as he dismounted Toothless, the other rider following his lead. "I don't think this training mission could've gone better, from a skills point of view. Though, Snotlout, you really do need to remember that victory dances or chants really should wait until once you've definitely been victorious," Hiccup said, brow raised at the aforementioned teenager.

"Yeah, yeah," Snotlout said, flapping a hand dismissively at Hiccup.

"On a similar note, you two need to learn to follow orders," Astrid said, pointing at the twins. "We could've managed our sneak attack if the two of you hadn't decided to burst past Fishlegs and give away our position to the enemy," she said, gesturing to Hiccup, Snotlout, their dragons, and Jack.

"But our plan was so much cooler!" Ruffnut whined as her brother nodded emphatically beside her.

"Your plan got you two and your dragon killed before you even got into the cave," Astrid said flatly.

"Guess this means we need more training mission like this one," Hiccup said lightly, earning a groan from Snotlout and the twins. "We'll have to make sure to find some time to get some of these in, as well as other training missions so we don't get rusty," Hiccup added, smirking when the groans became more dramatic. Ignoring the three of them, Hiccup turned to Jack. "Do you think this helped you at all?" he asked and Jack nodded, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he leant on his staff.

"Definitely. I learned that Monstrous Nightmares can cling to rocky walls like lizards. Deadly Nadders are far sneakier than I gave them credit for. Stormfly really did manage to get closer to me than I thought she would without me realising it," Jack praised the blue and yellow dragon who preened in delight. "Meatlug can get through smaller spaces than I thought she'd be able to, which tells me that I might need to clear smaller caves of dragons bigger than Terrible Terrors than I thought I would have to. Barf and Belch are also quicker on their feet than I thought they would be as well. I didn't expect them to get through the tunnel so quickly on foot," Jack summed up. "Plus, Night Furies and Monstrous Nightmares are really good at making use of the terrain to get themselves out of trouble quicker if they can't fly," he added.

"Good," Hiccup said. "That means both goals for this training mission were met in some capacity," he said with a small sigh as he looked at Snotlout and the twins. "Anyways, now that the mission's over, we should probably head back to our homes and try to get this paint off ourselves and our dragons," Hiccup said, a displeased look on his face as he envisioned the effort it would take to do so.

"It's not like you have much to do. You and Toothless didn't get hit," Snotlout pouted.

"Actually," Hiccup said, gesturing for Toothless to do something. That something ended up being the dragon sweeping his tail around to the front of him, showing off the orange paint that marred the black scales, "we did."

"I got Toothless?" Fishlegs asked, voice dripping with disbelief as he took in the orange paint.

"You did," Hiccup said, sounding not at all upset about it. "You got him just when you got hit by Snotlout as you exited the tunnel that we had used to escape," he told the large teenager. "Even though it wasn't a fatal or crippling hit, you still did a good job," he praised, earning a flush from Fishlegs.

"Th-thanks," the husky teenager stuttered as his dragon leaned into his side, cooing proudly at him.

Hiccup grinned at him before he climbed back into Toothless' saddle. Once again, the other dragon riders mimicked his actions while Jack simply waited. "Let's head back to the village," he said, getting mutters of agreement in response. He waited until everyone else had taken off before he and Toothless did, Jack rising along beside them. "So how badly did Stormfly's spines get you?" Hiccup asked casually, even as he flicked worried eyes over Jack's form. Toothless cooed in worry as he glanced at Jack as well.

The winter spirit sighed than grimaced as Baby Tooth gave a concerned squeak and wriggled her way out of the hoodie to inspect him for herself. "I'm fine," Jack said as the fairy found the gash to the back of his calf. "She barely scratched me and I heal quickly. By tomorrow, it'll be like nothing happened," Jack told Hiccup.

Hiccup didn't get the chance to respond as Baby Tooth flew back up into Jack's face and started lecturing him, despite the fact that they were still flying and she was being forced to fly backwards just so she could keep eye contact. Hiccup's amusement grew as he watched Jack being lectured by such a small fairy and he was content to let her get her rant out of her system before he bothered to say anything. "What she said," Hiccup commented once Baby Tooth had paused to take a breath.

"You don't even know what she said!" Jack exclaimed, giving Hiccup and incredulous look.

"I think I figured it out from context and I'm pretty confident it was a lecture about not hiding your injuries and looking after yourself better," Hiccup said.

Jack scowled before he begrudgingly said, "pretty much." Baby Tooth had no such problems letting Hiccup know he'd summed up her rant nicely enough.

"What do you need to take care of it?" Hiccup asked, deciding that lecturing Jack wouldn't do anyone any good since he'd already been lectured by Baby Tooth and because Hiccup wasn't sure how well a lecture from him would be received by the winter spirit. As much as Jack had shown and admitted that he trusted Hiccup – it was the only reason he'd agreed to act as bait for Astrid despite knowing the blonde held a grudge – the brunette wasn't sure whether that trust was enough for a lecture to go down well.

"Just some snow and some sleep," Jack said with an unconcerned shrug. He saw Hiccup and Toothless' disbelieving expressions and tried to convince them that he was being honest. "Seriously, I don't need anything else. I heal fast and I heal faster when I have snow packed against whatever injury I suffered," Jack told them. "It's got something to do with being the Spirit of Winter," Jack offered as a possible explanation. Even he wasn't sure how it worked entirely, just that he healed far more rapidly if he was buried in the snow.

Hiccup didn't look like he fully believed Jack but he nodded rather than try and get more answers out of him. "Okay," he said, somewhat reluctantly. "We'll get that wound cleaned out first then find some clean snow for you to use," he told Jack, voice firm.

Baby Tooth squeaked in agreement before she let out a chirped order for Jack to follow Hiccup's instructions. "Bossy," Jack teased fondly, earning an eyeroll from the fairy before he nodded at Jack. "Sounds good to me," he said before he smirked, "even if it's a bit of an overreaction to a tiny cut," he said.

This time it was Hiccup who rolled his eyes. "I have a feeling you'd be the kind of person or spirit to downplay their injuries so forgive me if I don't take your word for it until I've looked it over myself," Hiccup said.

The fact that Jack couldn't come up with a comeback only confirmed Hiccup's suspicions and had the brunette silently promise himself to keep an eye on the winter spirit while he was in Berk's care so that he didn't end up getting himself into enough trouble that he almost dies because he'd too stubborn to ask for help. Looking at his dragon's expression, Hiccup knew that Toothless would definitely be helping him keep that promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 7 for you all! Also, I want to warn everyone now. I'm heading to my dad's place for the weekend next week (leaving on the Friday afternoon and coming home *hopefully* on the Sunday) so the next chapter might be a little late. Worse comes to worse, chapter 8 will be posted a day or two late before I'm back on schedule the week after. Of course, something could happen between now and then and my trip might be delayed but I figured I'd let you all know ahead of time anyways :)
> 
> Many, many thanks to the amazing people who have left comments and reviews on this story so far! I appreciate them all so much! 
> 
> I can't wait to hear what you guys have to say about this chapter! See you all next week at some stage!


	8. Chapter 8

"I can't believe that gash from Stormfly's spine shot really healed up so quickly," Hiccup said, shaking his head as he checked the back of Jack's calf before he let the winter spirit head downstairs for breakfast.

"I told you. All I needed was some snow and sleep," Jack said, grinning with amusement as he let Hiccup carefully poke where the injury had been for a few more seconds before he turned around, putting a bit of distance between the two of them.

Jack had been surprised at how surprised he was the previous day when he saw how concerned Hiccup had been regarding the injury he'd gotten during the last fight of their training mission. After a year of Tooth, North, Sandy, and, to a less obvious degree, Bunny fretting over him every time he got injured, be it doing something stupid, an accident, or because of a fight, Jack had thought he was used to people fussing over his injuries but it turned out he certainly wasn't. Stoick had walked in on Hiccup helping Jack to clean it out but, much to Jack's relief, he'd only gruffly asked whether Jack was alright and had left the two of them alone when Jack had sworn he was fine and that Hiccup was overreacting, earning a light punch to his shoulder from the brunette in retaliation. Baby Tooth had come out of hiding when Stoick left Hiccup's room and settled back in her previous spot-on Hiccup's shoulder so she could watch what the dragon rider was doing in case she ever needed to help Jack out in the future.

"Yeah, yeah," Hiccup said, rolling his eyes as he sat back on his bed. "I'd rather make sure you won't get some kind of nasty infection so I don't have to suffer through one of Baby Tooth's lectures. Watching you on the receiving end of one is bad enough," Hiccup said, laughter in his eyes. Baby Tooth didn't look the slightest bit offended by his words.

"Yeah, they're not fun to live through," Jack agreed, earning a reproachful chirp from the fairy. "You know I appreciate you showing how much you care for me but I bet being on the receiving end of one of your worried lectures feels about how you feel when you're on the end of one of Tooth's," Jack told her, getting a small grimace from her at his words.

Jack saw Hiccup's eyes flick between him and the fairy and had a feeling he knew what he was about to ask. "Have the two of you talked?" the dragon rider asked, proving Jack right.

"We spoke last night," Jack told him as Hiccup continued getting ready for the day. Toothless hadn't moved from his bed, though he had been watching them alertly ever since Jack and Baby Tooth came through Hiccup's window that morning. "Baby Tooth wants to wait another day or two before she starts letting people meet her. Once she feels ready to do so, she'll let me know and I'll tell you so you and Toothless can be there to help calm people down if they react badly," Jack said.

Hiccup nodded in understanding, even if he did look a little disappointed that Baby Tooth hadn't decided to meet anyone that very day. "Fair enough," he said with a casual shrug as he pulled on his leg and stood. "Let's go and grab some breakfast before we head into the village," Hiccup suggested, heading towards the staircase.

The mention of breakfast had Jack realise something. "How come your dad hasn't called us down for breakfast yet? He normally does before now," Jack said as he followed Hiccup. Toothless had decided to skip the stairs and had leapt from the railing of Hiccup's room into the living room.

"He's not here," Hiccup told him, giving Jack a look that told the winter spirit that he thought that he should've realised that for himself. "He left early this morning. Probably had a meeting or something on in the village," he added as an explanation with a small shrug.

Jack frowned as Baby Tooth creeped cautiously out of his hoodie as he tried to remember whether he'd heard Stoick leave this morning and had just dismissed the noise but he couldn't. "I didn't even hear him go," Jack said, mildly surprised at that revelation. 300 years of not being particularly liked had had Jack train himself to be a light sleeper. The first few attacks from hostile spirits had added to his ability to wake up at the slightest hint of danger but apparently he hadn't registered the noise of the front door opening and closing as potential danger. That made him frown slightly. Why wouldn't he have woken up at that noise? Had the year of being a Guardian and sleeping at North's most of the time made it so he wasn't as wary while he slept?

Hiccup shrugged as he pulled the bread towards himself with one hand and grabbed a knife with the other. "I heard him leave. He wasn't exactly quiet about it. Maybe you slept deeper than you normally do because you were healing?" Hiccup suggested as he sliced two thick pieces of bread and handed one to Jack.

The winter spirit took the bit of bread and took his normal seat at the table. "Maybe," Jack said, though he wasn't particularly convinced that that was the reason. He took a bite of his bread as Hiccup sat opposite him and did the same. Toothless was happy devouring his breakfast of fish and Jack assumed that since Hiccup hadn't taken any out to him that Skullcrusher had gone with Stoick. "So, usual plan today?" Jack asked once he'd finished his mouthful.

Hiccup nodded. "No reason to think otherwise," he said with a shrug as he continued eating his breakfast and Jack couldn't really argue with that. He hadn't accidentally triggered another snowstorm so they wouldn't have to clear the streets and it wasn't until the afternoon where they had plans to go boar hunting so Jack hadn't been expecting Hiccup to come out and say that there was a change in the morning plans.

Nodding to Hiccup's answer, Jack mentally started preparing stories he'd not yet told the village children since he knew it would be a matter of minutes before they found him once he, Hiccup, and Toothless arrived at the forge. A chirp caught his attention and he watched as Baby Tooth left the safety of his shoulder to do a thorough inspection of the kitchen area since there wasn't a risk of Stoick finding out about her before she wanted him to. Jack gave her a small piece of his bread to tide her over until that afternoon so she could eat while she inspected the room and both he and Hiccup watched her dart around the area, taking in everything she could until Hiccup announced that they needed to head out for the day.

* * *

"It's about time ya turned up!" Gobber shouted the moment Hiccup, Jack, and Toothless were in his sight. He didn't seem to notice the confused looks Hiccup and Jack exchanged, nor did he notice the yelp Hiccup let out as Gobber pulled him into the forge and threw his apron at him. "More orders were placed yesterday afternoon after you lot buggered off and now we've got orders comin' outta our ears! Better get busy, Hiccup, or you won't be leavin' for your boar hunt this afternoon!" Gobber threatened him. Toothless cooed in disappointment but Gobber shot him a flat look. "No use complainin' about it!" he scolded the dragon. "If ya wanna go on this boar hunt with ya human, you can put yourself to good use and help out too! Gods knows Grump isn't gonna keep a good eye on the forges just because we're busy today," Gobber muttered as he shooed the two further into his forge.

Jack watched the whole scene unfold with mild shock. He hadn't seen Gobber quite so energetic as he was this morning but he guessed this was just how the man was in these kinds of situations. Jack had been about to turn and head for his usual spot to wait on the kids but Hiccup managed to evade Gobber when the man's back was turned and head for Jack. "We're probably going to be stuck here until a couple of hours before dark. Why don't you go and find one of the other riders and spend your day with them? Toothless and I will find you when we're done here," Hiccup suggested.

"Would that be okay? Me walking around the village without an escort until I find one of the others?" Jack asked. As much as he loved telling and re-enacting the stories for the village kids, he was a little bored of it and wouldn't mind a break, however, if that break came at the cost of Hiccup getting in trouble for not making sure Stoick's orders were followed, he wouldn't leave the forge.

Hiccup's frown told Jack that he hadn't thought of that. The winter spirit had been about to tell him not to worry about it when something over Jack's shoulder made Hiccup's eyes light up in relief. "Fishlegs!" Hiccup called, raising a hand to wave at the passing Viking, who'd looked around instinctively at his name being called.

The blonde Viking beamed at Hiccup before he and his dragon headed for the pair. "Hey, Hiccup, Jack. What's up?" Fishlegs asked curiously.

"Are you busy this morning?" Hiccup asked, straight to the point.

"Not for a couple of hours," Fishlegs responded, looking a touch confused about why he was being asked.

"Can you take Jack? Gobber will have me in the forge most of the day and even if Jack spends a couple of hours with the kids, he'll still have a tonne of time to wait before Gobber will release me so we can do that boar hunt this afternoon," Hiccup explained.

Both Jack and Fishlegs were surprised at the question but Fishlegs was the first to respond. "I don't mind, so long as it's okay with Jack though," Fishlegs said, a touch of nervousness in his voice. "But, like I said, I'll only be free for a couple of hours then I have to help my parents with some chores," Fishlegs told them.

"Can you find one of the other riders before you have to do your chores and see if they'll keep him company?" Hiccup asked. Jack felt mildly annoyed that both of them were talking about him as though he weren't there but he didn't bother saying anything since it wasn't like he could contribute much to the conversation anyways.

"I should be able to. Mum and Dad won't mind if I'm a little late," Fishlegs said, flushing slightly when Hiccup gave him a grateful smile.

"Thanks heaps, Fishlegs. You're a lifesaver!" Hiccup exclaimed, causing Fishlegs' flush to deepen. "Are you alright with that, Jack?" Hiccup asked the winter spirit, who nodded.

"Can't be worse than spending half a dozen hours waiting on Gobber to let you and Toothless leave," Jack told him with a grin that had Hiccup rolling his eyes.

"Good," Hiccup said. "Speaking of Gobber, I should-"

"Hiccup, what are ya doing?! Git in here and help!" Gobber's yells cut the brunette off, who sighed resignedly before continuing.

"I should get back," Hiccup said dryly. "I'll come and find you after we're finished here so you can help with the boar hunt," Hiccup told Jack, who nodded.

"No problems," Jack said. "You'd better get going before Gobber comes out here to get you," Jack said, wincing when there was a loud clatter followed by some creative cursing from inside the forge.

"Good idea," Hiccup agreed enthusiastically. "Thanks again, Fishlegs. I'll see you both later," Hiccup said before heading back to the forge, not even waiting for their replies.

"Do you mind walking?" Fishlegs asked as Hiccup fled into the forge, getting Jack's attention. "Meatlug doesn't like flying all the time, especially when she's carrying me," he said, fidgeting slightly.

"Nah, I don't mind," Jack said easily. He didn't always fly from place to place either, especially if he's not in danger and the place he was heading to was within walking distance.

Fishlegs relaxed immensely before he gestured for Jack to follow him and Meatlug. Since he didn't know Meatlug as well as he knew Toothless – who, ever since the snowball fight, had been far more affectionate with Jack, even allowing him to pat him – Jack elected to walk on Fishlegs other side. "We'd planned on heading to the stables. There's a place there where I can study and add to the Great Book of Dragons if I need to. We'd found a couple of new species before we ran into you and I've added them in but I haven't made cards for them yet so I was going to do that," Fishlegs explained as they walked. "I heard Hiccup ask you yesterday whether you'd learned anything from the training mission so I thought you might like reading up on every dragon we know of but if you don't want to, we can find something else to do. I know a lot of people around here aren't big on reading anything," Fishlegs said self-consciously.

"Lucky for you, I love reading!" Jack said honestly. After teaching himself by eavesdropping on some English classes at local schools near wherever he was at the time, Jack had found a love for books of almost every type. He couldn't keep them since he didn't have a safe place to keep them like North's workshop or Bunny's warren but he still read every chance he got. "Plus it would be really great to read up on some more of your dragons, especially the ones that don't live on Berk. I have no idea where I'm gonna end up in order to get this job for Father Time done so being armed with as much knowledge about every type of dragon possible would be a great help," Jack said enthusiastically.

Fishlegs looked stunned at the enthusiasm Jack was showing for a few moments before that shock morphed into joy. "Hiccup's the only one who gets excited reading the stuff in the Great Book of Dragons! Astrid only reads it so she can get the stats on the dragons and the twins and Snotlout don't like reading at all," Fishlegs explained. "Hiccup's done most of the illustrations in the book as well," Fishlegs revealed.

"Hiccup's an artist?" Jack asked as they continued towards the stables. It was a fair hike, clean across the village, but none of them minded.

Fishlegs nodded. "He's a great artist," he told Jack. "He draws mostly with charcoal but he's really great at it. He even managed to draw a Changewing just from my description of it! He'd never seen one before," Fishlegs gushed. "He has a really good eye for little details as well. He fixed some of the older sketches of other dragons when he noticed there was something missing from them," he said.

"That's great!" Jack said as he jogged down a couple of steps, twirling his staff absentmindedly as he did so. "So is Hiccup's job with the book just as the artist?" he asked.

Fishlegs shook his head as he and Meatlug headed to the left, making Jack change his direction to match theirs. "No, he helps with finding new dragons and studying them," Fishlegs told him. "That's my main job as well. The studying part, not the drawing part," he said with a small laugh.

"So how do you study dragons? Do you just watch them for a few days?" Jack asked, wanting to keep this conversation going.

"Sort of," Fishlegs told him. "Obviously, we can study Gronckles, Deadly Nadders, and the other dragons on Berk fairly easily. We usually go out and find wild ones to get more accurate data but for the main part we don't have to leave the island," he explained. "To study the other dragons, we do have to leave the island and that means making plans to be away from Berk for days at a time. We have a base several hours away from Berk that we called Dragon's Edge. It sits on the edge of the Archipelago and we've had it for about a year or so but the betrayal by Trader Johan had us come back to Berk to help it recover and protect it from anyone who would try and attack while we were still vulnerable," Fishlegs told him. Jack had already heard about Trader Johan from Hiccup so he wasn't surprised to hear the name now. "But before we left, a couple of us would go out at a time for a week or so and try to find new dragons to study. We'd get what data we could before the dragons got sick of us and ran us off their island or our time was up, whichever came first, then we'd head back to the base and record everything we'd found out into the book," Fishlegs explained.

Jack could see the stables up ahead and Meatlug made a cooing noise so that Fishlegs was aware of how close they were. "So was it mainly you and Hiccup who did those sorts of trips?" Jack asked, remembering what Fishlegs had said about how the other dragon riders regarded the book.

"Sometimes," Fishlegs said. "Usually we didn't team up together since most dragons are pretty calm so long as you don't do anything to threaten them or their homes so you can go by yourself," he told Jack, who filed that bit of information away, "but sometimes you get really aggressive dragons, like the Changewings, who are extremely territorial and don't like anyone or any dragon that isn't a Changewing on their island so to study that kind of dragon, Hiccup and I usually team up, just so there's someone watching our backs while the other watches the dragons," he explained.

"Not the others?" Jack queried.

Fishlegs grimaced slightly as he led Jack and Meatlug alongside the stables. "Astrid gets bored of watching dragons for too long and the twins and Snotlout can't be trusted to not cause any issues on the island that would set the dragons off. They claim they're just trying to help us gather more data on their attack powers but we all know they do it so they aren't bored," Fishlegs divulged.

"Yeah, I don't think I'm surprised to hear that that's why they don't go on many dragon-watching trips with you," Jack said dryly, earning an amused smile from Fishlegs. "I'm just assuming from your tone of voice whenever you mentioned the Great Book of Dragons but I guess you guys don't take it with you?" Jack asked just as Fishlegs and Meatlug stopped at a door and pulled it open.

"No," Fishlegs confirmed. "It's the only copy we have. We have another book that's filled with our notes about training and looking after dragons but neither book leaves Berk. Both would be disastrous in the hands of someone who isn't a friend to dragons," Fishlegs told him.

Meatlug entered the room first and Jack followed her at Fishlegs' gesture. "So how do you remember everything about the dragons you study?" Jack asked as Fishlegs and Meatlug led him down a torch-lit hall.

"We have notebooks we take with us," Fishlegs told him, opening another door, and grabbing a lit torch off the wall. "We keep our notes with the book though, since they could also be used to do harm to dragons if in the wrong hands," Fishlegs added before Jack could ask.

Jack hummed in response as he entered the dark room. Before he could say anything, there was the sound of something regurgitating followed immediately by the room lighting up with the warm glow of the lava Meatlug had produced. Jack immediately felt the heat rise from it but he found it tolerable if he stayed on the other side of the room. Fishlegs thanked the dragon, who wriggled in delight – not unlike the pet dogs Jack had seen getting praised by their owners – before he used the torch to light up multiple lamps in the room. He disappeared out of the room once the wall lamps and the two desk lamps were lit before he came back without the torch, proving Jack's theory on what Fishlegs had been doing right.

"So what's first?" Jack asked as Fishlegs sat at the table and gestured for Jack to do the same, which he did since the lamps didn't produce enough heat to add to what was in the room already. There was a loud _thump_ as Meatlug curled up in a corner and went to sleep.

"Well," Fishlegs said, looking at the thick book in front of him, "you're welcome to start reading through this if you'd like," he said, pushing the book towards Jack. "I can work off my notes to create my stat cards on the new dragons but I might have to get that book back to add to my cards later," he warned the winter spirit.

Jack eagerly opened the book and found himself face to face with pages strewn with runes. He sighed slightly as he realised he really should've expected that. He did know how to read runes but it was a skill he hadn't had to use for almost two and a half centuries. He was _not_ looking forward to trying to dig up that old skill and put it to use. At Fishlegs' questioning noise, Jack explained what the sigh was about. "You guys use runes still. It's not a style of writing I've had to translate for a lot of years," Jack said. "It's just gonna take me a while to refamiliarise myself with them, that's all," Jack added.

Fishlegs frowned at this revelation but he didn't ask how long it had been since Jack had last read runes. Instead, it seemed like the dragon rider was going to focus on something else. "Do you want help? I can read the first few pages with you to make sure you're translating them correctly," Fishlegs offered.

Jack's first instinct was to refuse the help. He'd never had it – except from the wind, the leaves, and a select handful of other spirits throughout the first 300 years of being a spirit – but he paused before he could. It wasn't like Fishlegs was going to judge him for not being able to read runes immediately. According to both Hiccup and what Jack had surmised from his and Fishlegs' conversation, not many of the villagers did know how to read in the first place so there was no reason to believe that Fishlegs or Hiccup would treat him any differently just because he needed help at the start. Besides, he'd much rather be sure he was reading the information correctly than let his pride get in the way and find out later on when faced with a hostile dragon that he'd messed up some of the translations.

"That would be really helpful," Jack said with a grateful smile that Fishlegs returned before he joined Jack on his side of the table.

"Okay, so the first thing you should know is that we put the name of the dragon species at the top of the page," Fishlegs said, gesturing to the word at the top of the page that had been printed in larger letters.

"So the first dragon we're going to be reading about is the," Jack frowned at the words for a moment while Fishlegs waited patiently, "Fireworm?" Jack asked, getting a nod from Fishlegs.

"Yup," the Viking confirmed and Jack felt a small flush of pride at being able to translate the name correctly. "So the next thing we do is rate their abilities down the page," he said, gesturing the set of underlined words that acted as headings.

"So things like fire, speed, venom, class, special abilities?" Jack asked, eyes flicking over the page as he translated the words Fishlegs had pointed to.

"Yeah," Fishlegs said. "So with the Fireworm, one of the things about it is that most of them don't technically produce a flame so you'll note that there isn't really any mention of flames or lava like Meatlug," Fishlegs told him, pointing to the section headed with 'fire'.

Jack studied the runes for a few moments, brow furrowed in concentration. "It says that they create a gel similar to what Monstrous Nightmares produce but that they can heat up their bodies to the same temperature as the sun and that they get brighter the closer they are to one another?" Jack asked, looking at Fishlegs for confirmation.

"Yeah," Fishlegs said, "but it also says that their queens can produce a flame much stronger but similar in appearance to a Deadly Nadder's," Fishlegs said, tapping the information Jack had missed in that section.

"Oh okay," Jack said, a little embarrassed about the fact that he'd fallen on an old habit of trying to speed-read his book and missing bits of information. He was going to have to consciously remind himself to slow his reading pace down so he didn't miss anything again.

If Fishlegs noticed Jack's embarrassment, he didn't comment on it. "So what's the next part say?" he asked, prompting Jack to keep going, which the winter spirit was relieved about.

"So this one's about their speed," Jack said, a hint of confidence in his voice that only grew when Fishlegs smiled at him and nodded. "The average Fireworm is only a few inches along but their size means they're pretty agile, able to escape…"

* * *

"Are you sure you're going to be okay with Snotlout and the twins for company?" Fishlegs asked, keeping his voice low so only Jack and Meatlug could hear him.

The twins and Snotlout were currently trying to see who could climb a tree the highest while using only their legs. Jack wasn't surprised to find that it wasn't going well for any of them. "Yeah," he told Fishlegs, though he knew his voice hadn't been as nonchalant or confident as he would've liked it.

Fishlegs had also noted his tone as his expression had turned apologetic. "I'd invite you to come to my house but with me, Mum, Dad, and our dragons pitching in to fix the roof, there wouldn't be a lot of room or things for you to do," Fishlegs said.

"It's okay, Fishlegs," Jack said, giving the worried Viking what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "I've survived far worse than those three and it'll only be for a couple of hours. Hiccup told me that Gobber would likely let him and Toothless go a couple of hours before sunset," Jack reminded him.

"That's still nearly four hours you'll have to spend with those three. Not many people can do that," Fishlegs told him, eyes darting between Snotlout – who'd just fallen out of the tree and was cursing – and the twins, who were still in the tree, upside down and poking their tongues out at Snotlout.

"I'll be fine," Jack promised him. "If they get too much, I'll find you or Astrid or I'll go back to the forge. I'll just make sure no one sees me travelling by myself," Jack said, wanting to ease the Viking's worries. After spending most of the morning with him, Jack had come to enjoy spending time with Fishlegs almost as much as he did Hiccup. It didn't hurt that Fishlegs was just a walking encyclopedia of everything dragon related and had crammed so much information and facts about dragons into Jack's head that the winter spirit was still reeling from it all.

"Alright," Fishlegs finally said in agreement before he headed for the twins and Snotlout, all of whom were now on solid ground.

"Hey, Fishlegs!" Tuffnut greeted, standing up abruptly before falling down immediately from the headrush he got as a result of trying to stand after spending so long upside down too soon. Ruffnut guffawed at him while Snotlout rolled his eyes.

"What are you two doing here?" Snotlout asked, glowering at Jack.

"I have to go help my parents with some stuff around the house and Hiccup's busy in the forge so I promised him I'd find another rider for Jack to stay with while he's busy," Fishlegs told him, looking unimpressed on Jack's behalf about the glower. "Can you three keep him entertained until Hiccup's done or do I have to go find Astrid?" Fishlegs asked.

"You want us to keep an eye on Jack and make sure he doesn't try to destroy the village like everyone not-so-secretly thinks he will the moment he's out of Hiccup's or Stoick's sight?" Tuffnut asked, sounding astounded that Fishlegs would entrust them with something like that.

Fishlegs grimaced but nodded. "Yeah, basically," he said, giving Jack an apologetic look that the winter spirit waved off. "Just don't use this as an excuse to try and destroy the village and blame it on him," Fishlegs asked pleadingly. Jack wondered if he should've been more worried than amused when the twins pouted at Fishlegs.

"Fine," Ruffnut whined. "We'll make sure he stays out of trouble and we promise not to destroy the village and blame it on him," she said, sounding thoroughly put out as she did so.

"They can keep an eye on him. I've got better things to do with my time," Snotlout huffed, stalking off to where Hookfang was resting with Barf and Belch.

"Sorry about him," Fishlegs said just as Hookfang went roaring just over the top of them, causing most of them to duck and Snotlout to cackle as his dragon took him into the village.

"Don't worry about it. I'm not gonna lose any sleep just because Snotlout doesn't like me," Jack assured him. Truthfully, Snotlout's actions weren't anywhere near as bad or as hurtful as Bunny's were to Jack before they'd buried the hatchet for good.

"Okay," Fishlegs said, still not sounding awfully happy but he decided to let it go. "Keep your promises, you two. You don't want to get on Stoick's bad side right now," Fishlegs warned them. To Jack's amazement, the threat of irking the chief seemed to make the pair pale slightly before they nodded. Fishlegs seemed satisfied by that since he then turned to Jack and said, "I'll see you later on."

"Sure will," Jack said cheerfully. "Thanks again for keeping me company and letting me go over that book and all of your notes," he said, not willing to let the gratitude go unsaid once more just in case he didn't see Fishlegs for the rest of the day.

"No problems at all," Fishlegs assured him as he climbed into Meatlug's saddle. "Have fun," he said before he looked at the twins. "But not too much fun," he warned them, getting dramatic sighs from the pair.

"It's like you don't trust us," Tuffnut said, faux wounded expression on his face.

"Your lack of trust in your fellow teammates is very hurtful, Fishlegs. Very hurtful indeed," Ruffnut informed him, pretending to wipe a tear from her cheek.

Fishlegs rolled his eyes before he glanced down at Jack. "Good luck," he said before he nudged Meatlug into flight and headed for his house so he wouldn't be too late to help his parents as he'd promised to do, leaving Jack with just the twins and Barf and Belch as his only company for now.

"So," Jack's attention was grabbed by Ruffnut, "when we asked you if you were a god, you told us that you weren't. Were you just lying to us to stop us from asking?" she asked, eyes narrowing shrewdly.

Jack sighed. He'd almost managed to forget about the awkwardness of being mistaken for Lords Jokul and Frosti but it seemed like the twins hadn't. "No, I wasn't lying," Jack told them. "I'm not a frost giant of any description and I'm not a god. I'm just the Spirit of Winter," he said.

"But you know them, right? Lords Jokul and Frosti," Tuffnut asked, joining his sister in eyeing Jack with narrow eyes.

Jack frowned slightly, unsure of where the twins were going with this. "Well, I don't _know_ them. I know _of_ them, however," he corrected them.

"So you've never met them?" Ruffnut asked and Jack shook his head. "But you've met Lord Loki, right?" she asked and from the excitement in hers and her brother's eyes, Jack realised they had reached what the twins had really wanted to ask. "You said you're a trickster as well."

"No, I haven't met Lord Loki either," Jack said, squashing their excitement. "I haven't met any of the Norse gods, for that matter. Spirits and gods don't tend to get around in the same social circles," Jack explained before they could ask.

"But you're immortal _and_ you're a trickster," Tuffnut protested. "That means you have to have met Lord Loki at some stage. Why else would you be a trickster like us?" he asked, sounding utterly flummoxed about the whole situation.

Jack shrugged a shoulder. "I didn't have much to do to occupy myself for 300 years and since the other spirits weren't big fans of mine, I decided I might as well give them a proper reason to hate me," Jack told the twins. "Besides, you're tricksters as well. Shouldn't that mean that you've met Lord Loki?" Jack asked, half curious and half hoping that they would say they hadn't and would realise that you don't need to have been visited by a trickster god to be a trickster yourself.

Unfortunately, his luck wasn't that good. "Oh, we have!" Ruffnut claimed, bobbing her head excitedly while Jack felt his jaw drop slightly.

"He came to us in our dreams one night," Tuffnut told Jack, voice dropped low to take on a mysterious note. "He told us that he wanted us to worship him and he even gave us some great ideas for some pranks!" he informed Jack before suddenly eyeing his curiously. "Maybe he did the same for you!" Tuffnut exclaimed, pointing at the winter spirit.

"I think you're onto something, brother-dearest," Ruffnut said, eyes back to scrutinising Jack. "What gave you the idea to start playing pranks on your fellow spirits in the first place?" she asked. "An unusually compelling dream, perhaps?"

"Ah, no, I don't think so," Jack said, already knowing deep in his heart that the twins were not going to let go of this idea now that it was in their heads.

"Well, it _has_ been 300 years for you, hasn't it?" Tuffnut said, glancing at his sister. "Perhaps he just doesn't recall it, sister-dearest." Jack felt more than a few nerves flare when the pair started walking towards him with a purpose.

Ruffnut nodded wisely as she stalked towards Jack. "Perhaps you're correct," she said with an air of importance. "Perhaps what we – as loyal worshippers of Lord Loki – need to do is help poor Jack remember the dream Lord Loki came to him in," she told her brother.

"Er, there really isn't –" Jack started saying but was cut off by Tuffnut.

"I think you might be right," he said with a firm nod. "Maybe what else we need to do is tell Jack about every prank we've played on the village since finding our true calling to see if that could also jog his memory," he suggested.

"A wise idea," Ruffnut declared before she placed a hand on one of Jack's shoulders while Tuffnut grasped the other. Before Jack could free himself from their hold, the two pushed down, forcing Jack to the ground as they joined him, crossing their legs as they eagerly watched the winter spirit. "Let's start with our very first prank after Lord Loki visited us," she said excitedly.

"A marvellous plan," Tuffnut proclaimed. Jack suddenly felt the urge to summon the wind and get himself out of here and that urge only grew when he saw the mischief and elation in the pair's eyes. _Maybe finding and spending a few hours with Astrid wouldn't be such a bad idea after all,_ Jack thought as Tuffnut started dramatically recounting the prank he and his sister had pulled on Berk the night after they claimed Loki had visited them in their dreams.

* * *

Astrid had been spending the last few minutes doing one her favourite things: training. She let out a grunt of exertion as she threw her battle axe at the closest tree and grinned when it buried one of its corners neatly into the wood exactly where she'd aimed it. Just as she retrieved her weapon, she heard Stormfly – who had been quietly preening herself nearby – let out a startled squawk. Feeling her instincts take over, Astrid swung around, axe at the ready, only to be greeted by the sight of Jack trying to squeeze himself between two of the large boulders that marked the small clearing she was in.

"I know you don't like me but I will freeze pretty much anyone you ask if you pretend I'm not here when the twins show up," Jack pleaded from in between the two rocks.

Part of her wanted to immediately signal the twins – who she could now see flying slowly overhead on Barf and Belch – but then Astrid thought about how she would feel if she were in Jack's metaphorical shoes and he gave her up. Sighing, she simply nodded to the winter spirit before she resumed her training, pretending to ignore the sound of a dragon coming closer.

"Astrid!" Tuffnut called, getting her attention at the moment she threw her axe and causing her to miss her mark. "Woah, you gotta work on your aim. That went wider than Meatlug is!" Tuffnut told her.

"Whatever you want had better be important!" the blonde Viking snarled at the twins as she glared at them.

"You wouldn't have happened to see a winter spirit fly by here?" Ruffnut asked. "Not that we promised to keep an eye on him and then lost him or anything like that," she added with a shaky laugh.

"You were supposed to keep an eye on Jack and you managed to let him get away?" Astrid asked, a smirk on her lips as she placed a hand on her cocked hip. "You'd better hope you find him before Stoick finds out he's not being watched or Jack decides to attack the village," she told them, tone gleeful as she spoke.

"We haven't lost him!" Tuffnut immediately said. "We just don't know exactly where he is," he added at Astrid's raised eyebrow.

"Well I suggest you figure out where he is and soon while I get back to my training that you two almost ruined," Astrid said scathingly.

"See, that's why people claim you're smart!" Ruffnut said in an obvious attempt to flatter the annoyed Viking. Astrid's flat expression almost made Jack snort but he managed to hold it back. The twins exchanged fearful looks before they turned Barf and Belch away. "See you later, Astrid! We're gonna go find Jack!"

"Not that he's missing!" Tuffnut called as the pair flew away and Jack gave a sigh of relief.

Astrid watched Jack struggle slightly to get out his hiding spot, noting the grazes he'd given himself on his cheeks and hands trying to get in between the boulders. "I owe you one," Jack said, giving Astrid a grateful look as he brushed off his clothing.

"Why exactly were you trying to hide from the twins?" Astrid asked, unable to contain her curiousity any further.

"They're convinced that I met Lord Loki somehow and that that's the reason I became a trickster 300 years ago," Jack told her. "At first they thought he'd visited me in my dreams like he'd done for them so they spent twenty minutes trying to jumpstart my memory by telling me all about their dreams and what Loki told them to do in them. When they realised that that line of questioning was getting them nowhere, they figured Loki must've disguised himself as someone or something else and encouraged me to play pranks on other spirits so they spent the last hour regaling me with stories of their own pranks and different forms Loki could've taken," he explained. "I couldn't take any more of it so I had the wind bring me to the closest dragon rider, who obviously ended up being you, in hopes that they'd be merciful enough to help me hide from the twins," Jack said, wrapping up his explanation.

As far as stories on why someone was avoiding the Thorston twins, that one didn't seem completely out of the question so Astrid figured Jack wasn't likely making it up. "Fair enough," she said with a nod before she turned her back on the winter spirit and went to grab her axe from the shrub it had landed in when Tuffnut distracted her.

Astrid was mildly surprised to see Jack was still in the small clearing, albeit on top of the boulders now rather than standing next to them. "If it's okay with you, do you mind if I stay here until Hiccup or you are done, whichever comes first?" Jack asked. "Fishlegs will still be busy with his chores and I'm fairly certain Snotlout will have Hookfang set me on fire if I try to stay with him and the twins are absolutely out of the question which just leaves you," he told her, "but if you really don't want me here, I'll head back to the forge and waste a couple of hours telling the kids what stories I haven't managed to tell them yet," he said, trying to hide the lack of enthusiasm he felt at that idea.

Astrid, of course, picked up on it right away. She wanted to demand why Jack suddenly didn't want to tell the kids of the village stories when he seemed to be in one of his elements when he did so before she remembered that it was his fifth day on Berk and that he'd spent most of his last three days keeping the children entertained with his tales. Even someone who enjoyed it as much as Jack seemed to must need a break every now and then. Sighing slightly, she nodded at him. "You can stay there while I train. I'm only going to be out here for a couple more hours at the most though," she told him, getting a nod. "Don't distract me either or I'll have Stormfly get rid of you," she threatened him.

"No problems," Jack promised, making an odd motion from one corner of his lips to the other with his index finger and thumb pinched together. Seeing her confused look, Jack explained. "It means I'm zipping my lips. That I promise to be quiet," he elaborated further when the confused look didn't abate.

Astrid gave him a nod, electing to ignore his weird quirks as she got back to her axe-throwing. She was determined to try and get her axe buried into the wood so the hilt was resting on the trunk and that meant she had to put more effort into her throws. Tuning out everything around her and trusting that Stormfly would get her attention if something happened, Astrid concentrated on her self-assigned task. Even as she continued launching the axe at the tree and felt her muscles cry out a little more in protest with each throw, Astrid could see a slight improvement in one hit to the next. Feeling her sense of pride grow with that, she didn't let up on her task, even switching hands so she was efficient enough with her non-dominant hand that she'd likely take an enemy by surprise.

During the fifteen minutes she spent on this training exercise, Astrid heard minimal noise from either her dragon or her surprise charge. She felt a fleeting flicker of astonishment at the fact that she hadn't heard anything out of Jack for so long but managed to stomp down the urge to turn and make certain he was still in the clearing since she knew Stormfly would've alerted her to him leaving. Instead, she used the opportunity that dislodging her axe from the tree she was now using as a target gave her to casually glance over the small clearing and surreptitiously check for herself. Sure enough, Jack and Stormfly were both still there, with Jack relaxing on top of the boulders he'd hidden himself between and Stormfly focused on her preening.

Satisfied with her axe-throwing skills, Astrid decided to build up on her axe-chopping skills instead once she'd ascertained that Jack was still nearby. Not bothering to inform the winter spirit of the change to her training, she headed for a tree she hadn't recently used as target practise so she could use it as her opponent. Selecting a thick tree that sat just within line of sight of the clearing so she could keep an eye on Jack and Stormfly, Astrid got to work with her latest training exercise. She mixed it up with added twists of her body, quickly switching the axe over to her empty hand, and alternating between under- and overhead slashes. Her breath started coming a bit harder with the vigorous exercise but she relished the burning of her muscles and lungs as she continued.

She was only halfway done with this particular exercise when Stormfly caught her attention. More specifically, Stormfly's delighted chirping caught her attention and Astrid was quick to find out why since she usually only made that noise when Astrid was about to feed her chicken or take her for a long flight after a few days without one. What the blonde discovered was not a recreation of Heather trying to bribe Stormfly with chicken so she could steal her or Jack coaxing Stormfly into letting him go for a flight but rather Jack grinning as he watched Stormfly chase a frost rabbit around the small clearing. His grin fell when he noticed her standing in the clearing and watching them, which resulted in Stormfly catching the rabbit and causing it to burst into small blue sparks while she shook her massive head from the sudden bite of cold she got.

"Sorry if we were being too loud," Jack immediately apologised, lowering his staff slightly in what Astrid was quick to realise was an attempt to reassure her that he wasn't going to attack her or her dragon.

"What were you doing?" Astrid asked, ignoring Jack's apology. Her blue eyes were torn between the apologetic look on Jack's face and her dragon's attempts to get Jack playing again.

"Well, Stormfly looked bored once she'd finished preening and I've been wanting to practise drawing and creating frost animals on rougher surfaces like stone for a while so I decided to use that practise to entertain Stormfly," Jack told her. "I didn't realise Stormfly would enjoy it so much and be as noisy as she was. It was entirely my fault," he said, voice firming on the last part of his statement.

Astrid was a little taken aback by the fact that Jack was trying to make sure any anger or annoyance he thought she'd feel was directed at him alone and not shared between him and her dragon. This shock only added to what she already felt as she watched Stormfly nudge Jack softly on the shoulder, trying to encourage him to keep playing. After the fiasco with Heather and her capture at the hands of the dragon trapper, Viggo Grimborn, Stormfly had become rather cautious around new people, something Astrid was secretly pleased with since it meant anyone trying to take her would have a harder time doing so. But here she was, gently butting her head up against someone she barely knew in order to get him playing with her once again.

"It's fine," Astrid said after a moment. "She was enjoying it so I don't care," she told Jack, who wasn't able to hide his surprise as quickly as he'd obviously tried to. "How do you create them?" she asked, ignoring his surprise as she headed closer to the boulders he was sitting on.

"I'm not really sure," Jack admitted before he gestured for her to join him. Astrid hesitated for a few moments but her curiousity won out in the end and she expertly climbed onto the rocks to sit next to him, leaving a large expanse of rock in front of them both. "It's an ability I only uncovered a year ago," Jack told her as he tapped his staff to the rock and allowed a thin layer of frost to cover it. He almost grinned at Astrid's slight gasp at the patterns his frost created. "What I do is I draw an animal," he said before trailing off and pointedly looking at her.

"A sheep," Astrid said, blurting out the first animal that came to mind.

Jack obliged her request and used his fingers to draw a sheep in the frost. "Once it's drawn, I simply use my powers and will it into existence," he then told her, lying the staff across his lap, and using both hands to pull the frost animal up off the rock. His face grimaced in concentration as he willed the frost to let go of the minuscule chips in the rock's surface but he soon had a frost sheep in front of him. "Then once I have it made," Jack said, breathing a sigh of relief that it worked, "I simply have it do whatever I want it to do," he said, picking up his staff and connecting to the frost sheep through it, instructing it to trot around Astrid before he had it leap and run towards Stormfly, who took up the chase with delight.

"So you can create whatever you want out of the frost?" Astrid asked and Jack nodded.

"I can't say for certain that I can but so far, I haven't found something I can't," Jack told her. "It's a lot easier to bring a frost animal to life off a clean surface like metal or glass but it's good to know I can do it off rocks as well if I needed to," he divulged.

"Why would you need to? They don't seem to be useful for anything more than story aids and things to chase," Astrid said with a frown as she watched Stormfly try and grab the sheep that Jack was directing.

"I could use them to get the attention of someone if I'm hurt," Jack said with a shrug, "or if I can develop them further, I might even be able to use them to trigger snowfall in areas I'm not in, which would save me and the wind a bit of travel," he said, earning a ruffle of his hair from his closest friend.

"I guess those would be good uses for them," Astrid admitted a touch reluctantly. She ignored the glint of smugness in Jack's eyes. She didn't need a lecture from Hiccup for hitting people just because they had a good idea again. "Hiccup told me about some of your abilities," Astrid said, forcing the conversation to move along. Now that she had the opportunity to discuss Jack's powers and get a better read on him, she fully planned on taking it, her training exercises be damned. "What exactly can you do?" she asked, shuffling to the side so she could face him directly.

Jack contemplated on how he should answer her while he continued playing with Stormfly. "What powers did Hiccup tell you about?" he decided to ask, glancing at Astrid for a moment before his eyes went back to Stormfly in time to save the frost sheep from being destroyed by the eager dragon.

"Your frost, ice lightning, fun flakes," there was a glare accompanied with that ability that had Jack chuckle nervously but Astrid continued, "using the wind to help you fly, and your ability to bring about snowstorms and blizzards," she recounted.

Jack nodded. "Okay, well those are the main abilities I use but I do have a few other abilities that I either don't use much or aren't as noticeable as a snowstorm when I do use them," Jack told her. "Oh, that was close! Good job, Stormfly!" Jack praised once he managed to get the frost sheep out of harm's way before the aforementioned dragon managed to close her jaws around it. Stormfly preened at the praise before her focus went back to her prize. "Back on subject," Jack said, "do you just want me to start telling you about everything I can do?" he asked Astrid.

"Why else would I have asked?" the blonde Viking asked, a hint of mockery in her voice.

"Touché," Jack said, dipping his head slightly at her. Settling in for a lengthy conversation that would undoubtedly be peppered by questions from the suspicious Viking next to him, Jack started doing as she'd asked. "So, other than what you already know about, I can also…"

* * *

"There you are!" Both Jack and Astrid looked over to find Hiccup and Toothless walking out of the trees. The distraction caused by Hiccup ensured Stormfly was able to destroy the frost butterfly Jack had created for her to chase. "I've been looking all over the village for you," he told Jack, apparently not noticing the annoyed look he got from the winter spirit.

"Well, you managed to find me," Jack said, creating more frost and bringing the frost version of a dog to life for Stormfly to play with. Toothless perked up at the sight of Stormfly chasing something and without bothering to give any warning, joined the Deadly Nadder in her chase. "How did you manage to escape Gobber so early?" Jack asked, frowning at Hiccup. He hadn't been expecting to see the brunette for another hour at least.

"We managed to knock out some orders quicker than Gobber thought we could," Hiccup said with a shrug. "He told me he could manage the rest of them by himself and sent me and Toothless off to find you and start the boar hunt," he told Jack before he looked over at Astrid. "Hey, Astrid. How was your fishing trip this morning?" he asked the blonde.

"Good," Astrid told him, not moving from where she sat on top of the boulders next to Jack lest she be accidentally trampled by a playful dragon. "Bucket and Mulch decided to get another boat to head out with them so we filled both of them full of fish which will hopefully push us over the expected total haul for the week," she reported.

"That's great! At least we can be certain the dragons will have plenty to eat," Hiccup said, looking relieved about that. "What were you two doing before I interrupted?" he asked, nodding to the frost dog.

"I was playing with Stormfly while Astrid interrogated me," Jack said with a nonchalant shrug.

Astrid simply nodded in confirmation, not bothering to look ashamed or guilty. "I was training before Jack turned up," she told Hiccup and the brunette was a little surprised to see that the irked tone of her voice wasn't reflected in her eyes or body language. "Now that you're here, I can get back to it," she said, a not-so-subtle hint that was directed towards both boys.

"Thanks for keeping me company," Jack said, getting to his feet before he jumped off the boulder, landing lightly next to Hiccup.

"Well, you kept Stormfly entertained. We'll call it even," Astrid said as she jumped down after him, using a rolling tumble to disperse her momentum quickly.

Hiccup really wanted to ask what had happened to cause Astrid to be far less frigid towards Jack in the time they'd spent together but he knew from experience that doing so would result in pain brought on by his fellow rider so he elected to wait to ask about it once he, Jack, and Toothless were in the air and out of earshot of Astrid. "We'll see you tomorrow probably," Hiccup said just as Stormfly managed to touch the frost dog, causing it to dispel. At his words, Toothless turned his attention back to his rider and realised they were about to leave.

"Most likely," Astrid said as Toothless trilled goodbye to Stormfly and headed for Hiccup, making sure to get a pat from Jack on his way over. "Good luck with the boar hunt," she said as Hiccup climbed into Toothless' saddle while Jack gave Stormfly the pat goodbye she demanded.

"Thanks!" Hiccup said with a grin before he glanced at Jack and, upon getting a nod from the winter spirit, had Toothless take flight.

Jack gave Stormfly one final pat before he followed the black dragon, leaving Astrid to the training he'd unwittingly interrupted. The winter spirit knew that Hiccup was almost burning with curiousity about his and Astrid's talk but he decided to have a bit of fun and prevent Hiccup from asking immediately. "Do we have to organise any villagers to come with us to do the trapping?" he asked.

Hiccup shook his head. "I organised them once I was released from the forge. We've already decided on a place to hunt and they're heading there now. We're just going to make a quick stop to pick up Snotlout and Not-Silent Sven," Hiccup told him.

"Why do you guys call him Not-Silent Sven anyways?" Jack asked, cutting Hiccup off from asking the question he knew the brunette had been about to ask.

Hiccup eyed Jack up suspiciously, wondering if the spirit knew that he'd been wanting to ask about what he and Astrid had spoken about. He wasn't sure whether he bought Jack's innocent expression but decided to indulge him for the moment. "For most of my life, Not-Silent Sven was silent. He'd taken a vow of silence for some reason – I've never asked, actually – and he'd kept that vow up until about three years ago when he decided to break it. Because of his vow, he'd been called Silent Sven and now he's Not-Silent Sven since he's, well, not silent," Hiccup explained. He didn't let Jack get a word in before he finally asked, "what did you and Astrid speak about? Actually, for that matter, how'd you end up getting Astrid to agree to keep you company?" Hiccup asked, speaking rapidly, and causing Jack to laugh at him.

"I'm surprised you managed to hold out this long before asking," Jack chuckled as they flew into the village to seek out their missing party members. "Okay, well I stayed with Fishlegs most of the morning and learned a tonne of stuff about dragons while I was with him, which was extremely helpful and interesting at the same time, by the way. Anyways, he needed to leave so we headed out to find another rider and we…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you heaps for being patient! Here is the next chapter for you all to enjoy and next week's chapter shouldn't be as late as this one was :D Thank you heaps to my lovely commenters on the last chapter and I really hope to see some more comments on this chapter :D see you all next week!

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there everyone! This is my first HTTYDxRotG story ever! Actually, it's my first time writing any of the HTTYD or RotG characters. If you've read my stories before you know that my stories are for the FMA and Voltron: Legendary Defenders fandoms with some crossovers using the Criminal Minds and NCIS fandoms so this is an entirely new set of characters and two completely new fandoms for me to writing for! I would absolutely love to know what you all think to this first chapter and how I've written the characters I've used :)
> 
> This story will start a few weeks before HTTYD2 but a year after RotG with the main part of the story coinciding with HTTYD2. I look forward to seeing what you all think to it! See you all next week!


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